


Pecha Berries: A Pokémon Shield Nuzlocke Story

by missusk



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Friends, Canon Compliant, Character Development, Comedy, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Mental Health Issues, Mutual Pining, Nuzlocke Challenge, Romance, Slow Burn, actual pokemon battles in this pokemon fic, and good friends, but then it gets much better, learning how to have a healthy brain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 193,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23134750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missusk/pseuds/missusk
Summary: Mediocrity is predictable and Gym Challenger Dolly has learned that playing it safe is the wisest way to live. As someone living with the Nuzlocke Curse, she is blessed with the ability to understand and speak to Pokémon, but not without a fatal price. It isn’t until a strange whisper pulls on her heart that she dares to glance at what’s been haunting her for years: greatness.---We've got talking Pokémon, dung wars, #ANGST, mild cartoon violence, friendship, a Champion whose shirt is like... weirdly tight, the boy next door, that Slow Burn we all crave, maybe some (tasteful, T-rated) snogging maybe, AND **weekly updates!** All wrapped up nicely in a story for you!
Relationships: Hop & Original Pokemon Trainer(s), Hop (Pokemon) & Original Character(s), Hop (Pokemon)/Original Female Character(s), Hop/Original Pokemon Trainer(s), Kibana | Raihan & Original Character(s), Kibana | Raihan & Original Female Character(s), Kibana | Raihan & Original Pokemon Trainer(s), Kibana | Raihan/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 109
Kudos: 119





	1. Mediocrity

**Author's Note:**

> Rated T for themes of death/angst, some ~romance~, a few swears, the word butt, mild cartoon violence
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own Pokémon, nor am I British.
> 
> Assuming that since you’re reading fanfiction of Pokémon Shield, you’re probably already familiar with the main story-line of the game. This piece of writing deviates just a smidgen, with the focus being less about the Darkest Day, and more on character development and the struggles a Nuzlocke run can bring. Additionally, It’s always tough deciphering the age of the main characters in Pokémon games (that’s what makes it easier to insert yourself into the game!) but for the sake of this story and the dark themes it brings, I’m putting the main Gym Challengers (MC, Hop, Marnie, Bede) around 17-19ish. And hey, it’s fanficiton. If you disagree and are hoping for something more canon, I suggest visiting pokemon.com.

**Chapter 1 - Mediocrity**

Mediocrity was the one thing she was ever really good at.

Dolly gazed out her living room window with her head slumped on her fist. Her fingers drummed on the sill as she watched the trees sway back and forth, and the spring wind whispered through strands of her hair. She picked at the skin surrounding her nails - an unfortunate habit, sure, but it was something to do.

She was never very popular, never very funny, and pretty average when it came to marks in school. Her ex-boyfriend said she was a solid 5/10, so she had that going for her. Not interesting enough to be pretty, not interesting enough to be ugly.

A few Sqwovets bumbled across the branches of the Slumbering Weald, and the peaceful afternoon of Postwick jostled when a fat one cracked the branch it climbed on and tumbled into a shrub below. She winced on his behalf. He seemed fine though, as he quickly scuttled back up her fencing.

Well, she has been known as being 'a pleasure to have in class', but that's about it.

Average on all accounts; the princess of plain, the queen of common, the czar of standard. If anything, it didn't matter if she was the best at something no one cared about.

“Hey Dolly, wanna come play?” the Sqwovet asked, flicking his tail back and forth. “Me an’ the boys are having a dung war later.”

Dolly resisted the urge to grimace.

“Thanks Jeremy, but uh, no thanks,”

"Why? You’re not doing anything,” the Sqwovet huffed as he set his hands on his hips.

She shrugged and he scrambled back toward the trees, already calling back into the bushes.

"She’s not coming! I told you humans don’t play with their own dung!” 

“What a step back on the evolutionary ladder,” another voice grumbled as the shrubs rustled. 

Perhaps there was one interesting aspect about her - she could talk to Pokémon, not by her own choice, however. These daily requests for dung wars was exhibit A of why talking to Pokémon wasn’t as dreamy as everyone assumed it was. Exhibit B was Blipbug mating season. She shuddered at the thought, slumped over to the couch, and flopped onto the flowery decorative pillows her mum picked out when they first moved to Postwick. 

It's not that she didn't enjoy doing things, it's just that she was completely average at them. Sometimes by her own account, sometimes not. A lot of people lived by a dramatic, inspiring mantra. Hers manifested in that half-assing anything was better than no-assing it, and easier than whole-assing something.

Her mum’s Munchlax snored in the corner, letting out quiet murmurs as he slept.

“Rawst berries… _snrk_ …Sitrus berries…. _snrrrt_ …. pork loin… _hurk_ …” 

Dolly rolled her eyes as she flung a leg up on the back of the couch, pulled out her new Rotom phone, and started scrolling. Living in the world of Pokémon had perks, but sometimes pictures on social media weren’t one of them. Lady posing with a Slowbro here, Sudowoodo there, a picture of a sandstorm…even social media was average today. Her eyes began to droop until she saw a flash of gold and red.

"Ah! The exhibition match!" Dolly exclaimed as she bolted upright.

Now _that_ was someone who was good at something. One of those blokes that was good at everything, probably. Champion Leon was tall, dark, and handsome, charismatic to a fault, and the most powerful person in Galar, next to Chairman Rose of course. They said he was bad with directions, but it’s not like that was a character flaw. The passion that he oozed through every pore was palpable, even through a screen. It was magnetic, pervasive, and it almost made her feel like she could feel that passion again one day, too.

Almost.

As she watched Leon's team decimate yet another Trainer, Dolly’s mind began to drift. Charizard used Air Slash, which is effective against Fighting-types. Rubbish mistake sending a Machamp against his famous Charizard, what was this Trainer thinking? Has she ever even _seen_ Leon battle before? Rubbish.

Even though Dolly allowed herself to believe she was absolutely average at everything, a small thought pricked the back of her mind as she evaluated the battle.

She was good at one thing, once. Pokémon battles.

But that thought didn't last very long.

"Hello, hello!"

The pseudo-politeness of that verbal knocking was Seismic Tossed into the dirt as a boy barged into the living room, along with a cotton sphere and dirt from a pair of shoes and two pairs of hooves.

"Oh, that your flash new phone, Dolls? Were you watching Lee’s exhibition match on it?"

She glanced up to see her purple-haired best friend grinning at her, with his trusty Wooloo partner grinning right along with him. A quick glance to the left revealed her mum grimacing at the now dirt-speckled carpet.

“Hi Hop,” she said. “And hi Wooloo,”

“Hi,” Wooloo replied sheepishly as he hid half of his face behind his Trainer.

"I've got all my brother's matches recorded anyway,” Hop continued, ignoring her greeting. “Don't you want to meet the legendary Champion in person?"

“That’s today?!”

Hop beamed and folded his arms over his chest as Dolly scrambled off her couch.

“You bet, it’s been on the calendar for months! That’s why I came here to get you! Lee’s coming into town today, so come on, get off your duff and let’s get moving!” 

“Yeah!” Hop’s Wooloo bleated as he raised his head in triumph, just as his Trainer did.

Dolly trailed after her best mate who was already heading out the door.

“Going to Wedgehurst with Hop, bye mum!”

“Now wait a minute, Miss Dolores, you get your hat, remember the weather,” she scolded from the kitchen.

“And grab a bag, too, Lee’s probably going to have presents for us!” Hop sing-songed on his way out the door.

Dolly hopped to her room, slung her mum’s old leather bag over her shoulders, figured she’d be fine without her gran’s ugly old hat, and sprinted back to the front room. After a kiss on the cheek from her mum, she sprinted out the door.

“Now no going into the forest with the two of you!” her mum called from behind them.

“We know!” they replied simultaneously.

They trotted down the steps of her house and to the dirt path and a laugh exploded out of Hop’s mouth.

“Look at that bag, it’s about to pull you over! If Lee brings a Snorlax you’ll be all set!”

"Shut it, it’s the only one I’ve got," Dolly said, shoving at him with said bag. "If you’d like to buy me a new one at the boutique, I’d be happy to trade it out,”

“No thanks, mate, I’m saving my money for potions and Poké Balls for when Lee endorses me for the Gym Challenge,” Hop whistled as a Wooloo came rolling by.

Their eyes followed it as it rolled into the fence near Dolly’s house.

“What’s a Wooloo doing here?” Dolly asked as it butted its head against the fence post.

“I see what you’re up to,” Hop grinned, marching up to it. He pulled at the Wooloo’s flank and backed it up. “Don’t go using Tackle on the fencing!"

“Don't go past that fence, little Wooloo, there’s some scary Pokémon in there,” Dolly agreed as Hop patted it on the head.

The Wooloo looked at her blankly. Odd for it to not respond... She had dozens of conversations with the Wooloo around here, but perhaps she had never spoken to this one specifically. Although her Curse was overall pretty terrible, talking with Pokémon was one perk - the only perk, really.

Hop brushed his hands off and grinned as the Wooloo scuttled off.

“Well now that that’s taken care of, let’s set off! You’ve still never met my big bro, right? You can’t miss out on your chance to meet the undefeated Champion!”

“It’s true,” Dolly grinned, hiking her bag up on her shoulders. “Someone so famous from such a nowhere town, and your brother, no less.”

“Yeah, well Postwick will be the hometown of two of Galar’s Champions once I get through with the Gym Challenge,” Hop grinned, pumping a fist in the air. “Speaking of nowhere towns, there’s Wedgehurst! Race you there!”

Hop took off at a sprint, kicking up dust as he ran towards the Wedgehurst train station. Dolly snickered and took off right behind him.

The plaza was filled with spectators and villagers, which wasn’t too challenging, to be honest, as their little villages weren’t exactly a thriving metropolis. They reached the back of the crowd, and tried to peer around bodies and through the arms of folks gathered to see their beloved Champion. The crowd erupted with cheers and Hop and Dolly saw a flash of fire and a twirl of gold.

“Hello, hello, Wedgehurst!” they heard over the crowd. “Your Champion Leon is back!”

Hop was grinning ear to ear as they pushed their way through the arms and legs of the spectators, and his smile grew as Leon addressed the people of Wedgehurst. Once they finally made it to the front, Hop stumbled forward and beamed at his older brother. Dolly followed behind him, curiosity burning in her to see the undefeated Galar Champion in person. She had seen so many matches on the telly and scrolling through her phone, and she had imagined countless times what it would be like to meet someone so charismatic and passionate. Well, not _countless_. She didn’t daydream about the Champion _that_ often. 

Anyway.

He stood tall, a dark red and gold cape slung over his shoulders. She could immediately see the resemblance between the two brothers as they stood grinning at each other, each with a megawatt smile, golden eyes, and indigo hair. He seemed even more dynamic in person as he ran to give his younger brother a hug. He ruffled Hop's hair as they stepped back.

“So, my number-one fan in all the world has come out of his way to pick me up! Look at you, Hop! I reckon you’ve grown…” he said as he scratched at his chin, then snapped his fingers. “Exactly an inch and a quarter since the last time I saw you!”

“Bingo! That’s the sort of sharp eye that’s kept you undefeated for so long, eh, Lee?”

Hop was vibrating with excitement. Suddenly, Leon turned her way, took in her appearance, and grinned.

“And these bright eyes over here,” he started as he made his way toward Dolly. 

Automatically Dolly stood a bit straighter, her mind racing for something clever or interesting to say that could possibly surprise or enrapture Galar’s famous Champion. He approached her, still smiling his million-dollar smile. Dolly felt like she was about to turn to a puddle.

“You must be Dolly - am I right? I’ve heard loads about you from my little brother,” he grinned, looking between her and Hop.

Now was her chance to make a good first impression.

“Yes.”

Nailed it.

“Now that we’re all acquainted,” Hop grinned. “Bet I can beat you both back home!”

And with that, he took off sprinting to Postwick again. Dolly watched in horror as her safety net sprinted off, kicking up dust at the two of them. She was banking on Hop and Leon chatting all the way home as she walked beside them, basking in the glory of the Champion. What on earth did she have to say to the most famous person in the country? ‘Yes’? Because that went over great the first time. Leon let out a laugh as he watched his brother.

“Always got to be the best, that Hop. You know,” he said as he turned to Dolly. “With a proper rival of his own, I’m sure he could push himself to become something truly special.”

“Yes.”

He was surely captivated now.

Dolly stood beside him, waiting for Leon to finish addressing the crowd again. She pondered for a moment that sure, who wouldn’t want a good rival? An accountability partner with a dose of healthy competition was often a recipe for growth. She wasn’t sure where Hop would find that in their little town, though, but perhaps if he started out on the Gym Challenge like he always said he would, then maybe he’d find a suitable sparring partner. 

“Do you train Pokémon too, Dolly?” Leon asked as they started towards Postwick. Hop had already made it to the edge of Route 1, and was hopping back and forth as they made their way to him. 

“Ye- I mean uh, n-no,” she stammered, fiddling with her hands. “I did, once, but uh, not anymore.”

She certainly didn’t anticipate talking about _this_ today, with the Champion, no less.

“Well, I hope you change your mind soon.”

“Come on, you Slowpokes!” Hop called, tapping his foot. “I could have made it to Kanto and back by now!”

A devious grin inched onto Leon’s face.

“Pardon me, Dolly, but I need to show my little brother that Galar’s Champion is truly the best. Not if I make it there first!” he yelled to Hop with a laugh as he broke into a sprint. Dolly watched as the two brothers ran beside each other, pushing and laughing as they raced back to their childhood home. 

She was nearly out of breath by the time she caught up, and the two of them were laughing and chatting in their front yard. She tried with every fiber of her being to breathe like a normal human and not the Weezing she felt like. Maybe if she willed it hard enough the sweat would disappear from her brow and the undefeated and surprisingly attractive Champion wouldn’t notice how completely out of shape she was.

“Finally, took you long enough,” Hop said as he ran to meet her at his front fence. He pulled her arm until they were standing in front of Leon. “Come on, Lee, you promised us a present! You brought Dolls and me some Pokémon, didn’t you?”

“Consider this the greatest present from the greatest Champion,” Leon grinned, waving his hands before him. “Come on out, you three!”

He turned to the makeshift pitch in their yard and tossed out three Poké Balls. In a flash, three Pokémon appeared, who immediately ran to explore the new space around them. In a burst of chaos, they had managed to ignite one of the hedges, knock over the mailbox, and fall headfirst into the pond by slipping on a puddle of tears. After a grimace and some quick repairs, Leon called them to line up, which they dutifully obeyed. Hop pushed Dolly’s shoulder forward. 

“Go on Dolls, you pick first. I’ve already got Wooloo, after all.”

“P-pick?” she asked, eyes wide at the Pokémon before her.

She hadn’t had a Pokémon in years, not ever since her last partner. Even when Hop had tried to persuade her to catch a Wooloo to befriend his, she always made up some excuse to avoid the trip. He tried relentlessly for a while, but after years of attempting he eventually gave up. She glanced at Leon.

…But then again, the undefeated Champion of Galar had brought Pokémon all the way back for Hop, and for her, even though they had never met. She couldn’t turn down a gift from Galar’s Champion, right? She may be lazy, but she wasn’t rude.

Dolly looked to the options before her, trying her best to swallow her fear. The Sobble was looking at the ground, the Grookey was looking at the surroundings, and the Scorbunny was looking straight into her eyes.

Could she really do this? As she looked at each one, the reminder of her Curse flashed through her head like a gunshot. It could happen by one overpowered Solar Beam, a Blast Burn, a Hydro Pump. Sheer Cold, Fissure, Guillotine... she shook the thoughts out of her head. How could she have the audacity to choose who may meet an early end? The dried sweat on her forehead was chilling.

“Hey lady, are you going to pick one of us or not?” the Scorbunny yawned as he scratched at his nose. He turned to the other two. “When do you think Mr. Leon will let us get some grub?”

“Soon, I expect,” Dolly replied as she knelt in front of them. “We’re to have a barbeque later tonight.”

All three of them jerked their heads to her.

They stared wide-eyed as the Grookey inched his way toward the Scorbunny. Cupping his hand on the wrong side of his mouth, he whispered.

“Did... did she just understand what you said?”

“Shit if I know!” the Scorbunny shouted, which spurred more tears from Sobble. “But I do know she said barbeque!”

The Grookey slapped his forehead before shoving the shoulder of the Scorbunny.

“Try asking her something.”

“What color am I?” the Scorbunny asked, squinting his eyes.

“That depends,” Dolly responded. “Most of you is white, but you’ve got bits of red, orange, yellow…”

“A human can understand me!” he yelped as he scrambled back in the grass.

Grookey and Sobble’s mouths dropped open, and Dolly could feel Leon’s gaze on her as Hop jumped up and down.

“See, Lee? I wasn’t pulling your leg when I told you she could talk to Pokémon! Brilliant, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve been able to since I was a kid,” she laughed nervously as she scratched behind her neck. Was it wicked? Sure. Was it worth it? No.

“Hey lady! What am I thinking?” the Scorbunny interrupted, squeezing his eyes shut and scrunching his face. After a moment the Grookey thwacked him on the back of the head.

“She said she can talk to Pokémon, not read your mind.”

“Oh yeah.”

“So,” she said as she looked at each Pokémon again. “I’ll let you guys pick. Which one of you would like to be my partner?” 

Perhaps it wouldn’t be all on her if something were to happen again, right? She was torn from her thoughts when the Scorbunny immediately jumped up.

“Oh pick me! I want a Trainer who can speak Pokémon!”

The corner of her mouth twitched up, and she nodded her head.

“Well, that takes care of that,” she whispered, more to herself than anyone.

“Yes!” he yelled, and immediately started bounding around her.

She laughed and held out her knuckles for a fist bump. He bounded around her again, then seeing her first, he prepared for a jump. Fist out, he jumped, overshot it, and punched Dolly square in the face and it only took a second before she was on the ground with a Scorbunny on her stomach.

“How’s that for first impressions,” the Grookey said as he slapped his forehead again. 

First she saw stars, then the blue of the sky, then the wide grin of her new Scorbunny.

“Heh, sorry,”

“You’ve got quite the arm,” Dolly mumbled. She rubbed her jaw and sat up, and her new Scorbunny fell into her lap.

“High attack,” she continued as she opened and closed her jaw. “Pretty adamant... we’ll have to watch your special attack in the future. Do you have a name?”

The Scorbunny scratched his chin again.

“Hmm... Scorbunny.”

“Okay, well now is your chance to change it," Dolly said with a laugh. "What would you like me to call you?”

“Something ace! Like... like...” he started, hopping off her lap. He paced back and forth, then looked around. “Like Mr. Leon!”

“Okay well I’m not going to call you Mr. Leon, just because you think he’s cool,” she added with a smirk and a glance to Leon. Though he was, indeed, very cool. “How about Jackson? I had an old rabbit stuffy named Jackson,”

“Awh, yeah that’s even better!” Jackson yelled as he hopped around her again.

“Jackson it is then," she smiled.

“Right, then” Hop interrupted. He helped Dolly up and stepped over to the remaining Pokémon. “I’ll go with Grookey. You and Wooloo will have to get well-acquainted, since we’ll all work together so I can be the next Champion!”

He held his arm out to Grookey, who cheered and raced up Hop’s arm until he was sitting on his shoulder. Leon grinned and walked up to them, nodding as Grookey cheered from Hop’s shoulder.

“I bet you will be, Hop. That’s why I brought along these Pokémon for the both of you, so the two of you can battle and train and grow stronger together to try to reach me!”

Dolly’s eyebrows furrowed. Reach him? Why? She supposed he didn’t often hand out rare Pokémon to strangers, so perhaps she shouldn’t be so surprised he’d want more Trainers out in Galar. Maybe she should just hand Jackson back off before she got too attached and all this got more misconstrued. 

“Oh, thanks Mr. Leon but-”

“Just call me Leon,” he grinned to her.

“Oh, right, uh, Leon, thanks and all but I’m not-”

“Alright!” Hop and Leon’s mum called as she made her way out of the house carrying a rack full of ingredients. “Enough with all this Trainer nonsense for one night! Dinner’s about ready, so bring your Pokémon and wash up!”

Dolly’s sentence died in her throat as the two brothers sprinted into the house, pushing and laughing again as their Pokémon trailed behind them. Her mum walked up to her and hugged her arm around Dolly’s shoulders.

“You’ve got a new Pokémon, haven’t you, love?”

Dolly looked down to Jackson, who was gazing between the two of them expectantly.

“I guess so,”' she said with a faint smile. “I certainly didn’t expect today to be filled with so many surprises,”

“Well, I’m glad. I know I’m always nagging on you to get up and do something, and this seems like the perfect avenue for it. I think it will be good for you,” she added, gazing at Dolly with an understanding only her mum could muster.

Dolly nodded weakly and let out a sigh. Even her mum now, too?

“You gonna eat or what,” Hop asked as he walked up to the two. He had a dark line of barbeque sauce smeared on his cheek. “Mum says you better get some before Lee eats it all.”

Dolly’s mum clapped and ran back into the house, stating that she forgot to add her secret spice blend to the vegetables. Hop looked to Dolly and swallowed the rest of his kabob. 

“I told you Lee was the coolest,” he grinned, though Dolly could only stare at the sauce still smeared on his cheek. “I asked him to bring you a Pokémon too, hope you don’t mind. I figured you just didn’t like the ones around here, and that’s why you’d never catch one. Now we can battle together! It’ll be ace, you and me, getting endorsed and doing the Gym Challenge together!”

Hop bobbed his kabobs up and down with enthusiasm as he spoke. Grookey on his shoulder kept swiping at the meat on top, to no avail as Hop kept bouncing them up and down.

Dolly looked at her best mate, gung-ho and enthusiastic for her in a way she could never be for herself. She probably wouldn't be very good at it, but maybe if she could support Hop in his journey and muddle through a handful of Gyms before dropping out. She nodded. Yeah, that was a good plan. Catch no more than six Pokémon, beat the first Gym, release her team all back into the wild, then drop out, move back to Postwick, and watch her friend become the new Champion and achieve his dream. Less risk, that way, to herself and her new Pokémon. She wouldn’t get too close, just in case.

When Dolly looked down to her new Scorbunny, to the hope and trust she could already see in his eyes, something in her heart tugged.

…Maybe keeping one would be fine.

The rest of the night came and went with everyone having full stomachs and full hearts. Dolly spent a sleepless night with her new Scorbunny, him asking her thousands of questions, and her finding an odd amount of joy in answering them. She had to admit, he was pretty funny, and as the sun rose, they had ended up talking and learning about each other almost all night. They both liked spicy curry, they both knew how to juggle, and they both had an embarrassing fascination with Leon. The sun hit Dolly’s face, and she awoke to see Jackson snuggled beside her head on her pillow. She reached to pet him, a bit of love already built up between the two of them. Yeah, maybe keeping just one would be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you for reading! More chapters are coming soon. An extra note for those unfamiliar with a Nuzlocke run:
> 
> The Nuzlocke Challenge is an extra set of rules for a Pokémon game play-through. Though other rules/restrictions may be added, the rules that I am following for my Pokemon Shield Nuzlocke story are these:
> 
> 1\. Any Pokémon that faints is considered dead and cannot be used again.
> 
> 2\. Only the first Pokémon encountered in each route (or each section of the Wild Area) is available to catch.*
> 
> 3\. Nicknames must be given to each Pokémon.
> 
> 4\. Traded Pokémon and gifted Pokemon are prohibited.
> 
> 5\. No duplicate species of Pokémon may be caught. (Ex: Can't have two Sqwovets, even if you reeaally want two, nor can you have a Sqwovet and a Greedent.)
> 
> 6\. If a Pokémon dies and it's evolution is later encountered, the evolution cannot be caught.
> 
> \- However, evolutions themselves can be caught. (Ex: Missing a Rookidee on Route 1 is fine, because it is still allowable to catch a Corviknight later.)
> 
> 7\. Battle style is 'set.'
> 
> *For overworld vs. underworld encounters: If more than one overworld Pokémon appear simultaneously, catch the closest Pokémon. If no overworld Pokémon is encountered, the first underworld Pokemon may be caught. If the underworld Pokémon is not captured, there are no more chances to catch Pokemon in that area.


	2. A Mysterious Encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Scorbunny)

**Chapter 2 - A Mysterious Encounter**

Dawn had barely broken, the sky was still pale, as Dolly and Jackson traveled down the well-beaten path. Rookidees were chirping, Jackson was humming, and Dolly was stomping through the dirt. She rubbed at her eyes and vehemently fought back the yawn that kept trying to escape. Hop texted her at the ass-crack of dawn to get her to come back and get an endorsement with him from Leon. The furious vibrating from his thousands of texts rumbled her phone off her nightstand, onto Jackson's head, who then bolted awake, yelped out in shock, and caught her curtains on fire.

As she scuffed at a few pebbles, she repeated her plan in her mind: Get the endorsement, beat the first Gym, release her team, drop out. She wouldn’t let herself be persuaded otherwise, not even by that beautiful smile or golden eyes. Dolly walked up to the two brothers in their front lawn again, and the two were chatting amicably as the sun rose higher in the sky. When Hop smiled at her, Dolly glared daggers in return.

“Good morning, Dolls,"

"Hrmph."

Leon chuckled and set his hands on his hips. 

"Understanding your new Pokémon alright, you two?”

“Course we have,” Hop said as he crossed his arms. “Grookey, Wooloo and I are like three peas in a pod. Seems Dolls has made fast friends with her Scorbunny, too,”

Suddenly a fire seemed to blaze in Leon’s eyes. It was that same passion that he exuded during every match she had ever watched, and every bit of it was tangible in the air as he looked between the two of them. When those passionate, dazzling, golden eyes stared into hers, Dolly was certainly much more alert.

“Then listen up, new Trainers. Trust in your Pokémon, trust in yourselves and each other, and someday,” he said as his piercing golden gaze fixed on Dolly. “You may even become worthy rivals for me, the unbeatable Champion.”

Her throat tightened. Surely he couldn’t be talking about her, right? Perhaps his eye was only good for deciphering how tall Hop had grown. Dolly briefly wondered if he could read her mind when she thought about dropping after the first Gym and giving Jackson back to him. Hop’s voice tore her from her thoughts.

“What’re you looking at her for, I’m the one who’ll be coming to challenge you!” he said, then he turned to her with a devilish grin. “If you think she’ll be strong enough to challenge you, then I guess she’s my first rival! And either way, just having a Pokémon with you doesn’t make you a real Trainer, you know.”

Leon laughed from beside them.

“And you think you’re a proper Trainer? How about you and Dolly here have a match, and I’ll be the judge of that. What do you say?” Leon asked. Hop nodded, and Leon turned to Dolly. “Willing and ready to take Hop on in the first-ever Pokémon battle of your life?”

Dolly looked between the two brothers, one blazing with expectant confidence, the other with supportive assurance. Would it be fair? This wasn’t her first-ever Pokémon battle, but neither Hop nor Leon knew that. She hadn’t battled in years, though, and if the Curse was still afflicting her then…

“C’mon, Dolls, unless you’re scared me an’ Grookey will pummel you into the dirt?”

...there was no way she could lose. Something started to burn within her, sparking something in the dusty and rusted light switch that had been turned off and unplugged years ago. The competition that burned Hop’s eyes was contagious, and it fueled the fire that she had attempted for years to quell. Before she could stop herself, she answered.

“There’s no way I can lose.”

They made their way to the makeshift pitch and Hop pumped his fists.

“I’ve watched every match that Lee’s ever had, read every book and magazine he’s left behind, and I know exactly what to do in order to win!” he grinned as he took his spot across from her.

Dolly could only nod because her mouth was too dry to speak. Her heart was throbbing throughout her body, the blood pulsing and rushing through her ears. This was it, what she had been avoiding for so long. Just one battle couldn’t hurt, right? If it went too far, perhaps she could cut it off and declare Hop the winner. And, something inside of her longed for battle, wanted it more than anything she had wanted for ages. It was like life itself had finally started to bubble within her again. Her doubts were quelled the second she ordered Jackson forward.

Suddenly the flame roared to life. The fire she had snuffed out over years of denial burned within her, blazing in every corner of her skin. She and Jackson moved in one fluid motion, her commands seamlessly executed as if their minds were one. In three short hits Wooloo was down, and out came Grookey.

Dolly grinned as she looked between her Fire and his Grass-type Pokémon. She had only been ordering Tackle on Wooloo, but something about the way Jackson was hopping back and forth with spurts of fire exploding on the ground with each step, posed an idea in her mind. 

“Jackson, use Ember!”

Fire spit from his mouth directly into Grookey’s chest, knocking him backwards. Hop ushered his Pokémon forward again and looked to Dolly in disbelief.  
  
“Did you already know about type advantages?!” 

She nodded as she sent Jackson forward again, and in one swift motion, Dolly won their first battle. Hop looked at her incredulously as he returned Grookey to his Poké Ball. After a moment he stood tall again with a huff.

“Well that was a shock. Guess now I know why Lee agreed to give you a Pokémon too,”

Leon grinned as he looked at Dolly, and that same ferocity burned in his eyes as she felt in her skin. 

“I’ve got a favor to ask of you, Dolly,” Leon said. Dolly nodded at the sheer force of will before her. “Be a real rival to Hop, would you? Push him, and make the both of you stronger. And,” suddenly he turned, looking stern as he looked between the two of them. “If you want anything to do with Galar’s fiercest Pokémon competition, you two better look at getting a Pokédex first.”

“Right right, Pokedéx, we’re on it,” Hop replied, waving his hand. He trotted to his front gate, Dolly in tow. “Better tell your mum we’re off to the Pokémon Research Lab, don’t want an earful from her, of all people.” 

As the pair made their way to Dolly’s house, a crash erupted from somewhere beyond her front lawn. They looked at each other, then raced toward the source. The fencing, which Dolly had only ever seen closed, was broken open with the path to the Slumbering Weald laid bare. Splinters and clumps of white wool littered the path and trailed into the forest. Her mind jumped to the suspiciously quiet Wooloo that had been tackling the fence the day before. Hop seemed to be thinking the same thing as they approached the fencing. 

“We’ve got to save it,” Dolly said, urging Hop along.

“That’s what I was thinking,” he replied as they both broke into a jog. “Even if this place is off-limits, we can’t just let that Wooloo get hurt!” 

The pair made their way into the Slumbering Weald and the forest immediately thickened. She had gazed upon the forest a thousand times from her window, but she never dared to actually enter it. Even at Hop’s incessant prodding when they were younger, they never let their curiosity get the better of them for fear of what might be lurking inside - and for what their mums would do to them if they found out.

It was as if a wall of fog pummeled them and blanketed itself over the dirt path. No birds chirped, the grass barely whispered, and the only sound came from the crunching of leaves beneath their shoes. Dolly discreetly gravitated towards Hop as their eyes peered past the dark shapes that loomed around them. After a while they slowed, and a faint purple glow enveloped the mist. Something about the mist felt familiar, nostalgic, even, as they trekked further into the trees. The crunch of the leaves was laced with a strange hum, as if the sound was enveloped in the mist. The tone reverberated louder the further they walked.

“Do you hear that?” Hop asked.

They paused, waiting for the noise again. It was silent, as not even the leaves under their feet rustled. Dolly could only hear her heart beating in her ears until a muffled cry pierced the air, and they broke into a sprint.

The further they ran, the thicker the fog became. It enveloped them like a blanket, and the strangely familiar sensation covered every inch of the forest. It slithered over their skin, whispered through their hair, thickened the further they ran. After a while Dolly could barely see her hand in front of her face, let alone Hop beside her. His voice was her only landmark as he called out to her. 

Then, his voice was lost in the fog. She spun around, looking for any semblance of her friend. Something was moving toward her, rocking back and forth as it walked. The leaves beneath its feet were silent.

The hair on her neck stood on end as it grew taller the closer it moved. Yellow eyes pierced through the fog and Dolly stumbled backward as the shadow loomed over her.

“Dolls, you alright? I can’t see anything!”

She motioned to call back to Hop but her voice was muffled by the strange fog. It slid down her throat, strangled her call, and pushed her into the ground. When a piercing howl cut through the fog, her vision went black.

All she saw was the mist, swirling in darkness. 

“Shield of Galar.”

Dolly whipped her head around. That certainly didn’t sound like Hop. It was almost as if the voice was embedded into every particle of mist that was swirling around her.

“Shield of Galar, your arrival here signals the beginning.”

“...What? Who are you?” she called into the mist. 

“Overcome the Nuzlocke Curse. You are called to greatness. Trust in yourself. Trust in your Pokémon.”

Before she could call out again, Dolly’s eyes shot open, and the trees of the Slumbering Weald were swaying above her. The mist had lightened, and the shadow was nowhere to be found. She looked around for the source of the strange voice, only to see Hop beside her on the ground.

Feet came pounding across the dirt, and suddenly the Champion was standing before them. He helped them both to their feet as his eyebrows pulled together.

“You two had me worried sick, I’d been waiting for ages and you never showed!”

The pair tried to splutter out an explanation as the Wooloo came waddling forward. They both let out a sigh. 

“The little chap’s fine, though all of you had fainted by the time I found you here. You know this place is out of bounds," Leon scolded, though his scowl quickly softened as he looked between the two. "But... then again, it took courage to come in here all the same. And I can understand well enough why you did it.”

The two nodded and followed Leon as they made their way out of the forest.

“Glad that Wooloo’s fine,” Hop said. “My arse is right sore, though, some mad shadow shoved me over but I couldn’t get a good look at it through all that bloody fog,”

“You saw it too?” Dolly gasped, and grabbed at Hop’s sleeve. “Did it say anything to you?”

Hop’s brow furrowed as he shook his head.

“I didn’t hear anything. I think I hit my head on something and passed right out. Why, did you?”

“Something about the Shield of Galar,” she explained, scratching her chin. “Not sure what that means, though.”

Hop shrugged as Leon turned to them, and his brow furrowed to match his younger brother.

“What’re you two talking about, mad shadow, Shield of Galar?”

“That’s probably what knocked us out,” Hop explained. “Not sure what it was - a Pokémon, maybe? Whatever it was, it just had this sort of presence…”

“The fearsome Pokémon they say live in the Slumbering Weald…” Leon muttered, more to himself than the other two. “Could they be illusions? Well, either way, perhaps if you two get strong enough you can be the ones to reveal the truth someday. Especially now that I’ve decided to endorse you both for the Gym Challenge,”

Leon ended his sentence with a sly grin, and their eyes grew wide.

“You mean it, Lee?” Hop asked, and his voice echoed through the trees.

Leon nodded and grinned as his little brother jumped up and down.

“You’ve shown a bit of prowess in battle, and a right bit of courage here doing what you did today," Leon said with a curt nod. "I think I’d be interested to see how you two fare in the Gym Challenge. After watching you two battle and seeing you put your neck out for a stray Wooloo, I’d say you both have what it takes to become proper Trainers.”

The sun shone warmly on their skin as the trio exited the Slumbering Weald, the mist and the strange vision far behind. Hop stretched in the sun, then turned to Dolly.

“Better tell your mum we’re off to Wedgehurst again, she’ll go spare if we run off without telling her. I’ll meet you at Route 1 when you’re done.”

Dolly nodded, and quickly started turning over in her head how on earth she was going to convince her mum she wanted to run off with her best friend to travel through half of Galar. She wouldn’t be too long, though, just to the first Gym and back.

As she opened the door to her house, she found her mother putzing about the kitchen, compiling ingredients and bread into a paper bag on the table.

“Mum? What's all this?”

Her mum looked guiltily to the table, which upon closer inspection had quite an assortment of things: some fruit, a map, even a collapsible tent. 

“I had a feeling this day would come again,” her mum sighed.

Dolly looked to her mum in confusion. She could see her eyes start to glisten.

“That was the only thing I’ve ever seen you have passion for, Dolly. Pokémon, that is,” she said, walking up to her daughter. She set her hands on Dolly’s shoulders, blinking back the wetness from her eyes. “I know you’ve faced many trials with Pokémon in the past, dear, but ever since you came home with that Scorbunny it’s like you came back to life.”

Dolly scanned her face. So, she had felt it too.

“I know how this Nuzlocke Curse has taken such a toll on you, but I want you to know that I fully support you going out and trying again. To see that light in your eyes that had faded for years, even if it’s only been two days, well, I think it’s worth it,” she said, pulling Dolly into a hug. “It’s like I finally have my daughter back.”

“Mum…” she whispered.

“Be safe out there, love,” her mum said into her hair. “Know that I love you, and your Pokémon will fight for you and protect you always, so take good care of them. You’ll always be my little Pecha berry.”

“I love you mum. I...” Dolly started. Her eyes stung as she tried to blink back the looming tears.

She contemplated telling her she’d be back just after the first Gym, but something about the mixture of the look in her mother’s eyes, the mysterious voice in the Slumbering Weald, and the ever-growing calling in her heart, made her feel that telling that aloud wouldn’t feel right.

“I’ll do my best.”

Her mum held her at arm's length and gave her shoulders an encouraging squeeze.

“I know it, love. You always have a home here. Remember, east or west, home is best,” she said with a smile, tapping Dolly’s nose. Then, her eyes widened. "Oh, yes! I've got something for you."

She disappeared and returned with a box in her hand.

“No matter what you said when you were little, even with everything you’ve been through with Pokémon, I always knew this day would come when you would return to them,” she said as she held the box out. “So here, something to remember home and healing by.”

Dolly took the box. She lifted the lid and inside was a delicate chain with a small gold charm on the end. It glinted as Dolly turned it over in her fingers, and the gold sheen reflected the light of their kitchen lamp.

“It’s a Pecha berry,” Dolly breathed.

“It’s something I was holding onto until you turned eighteen, but I figured a little early wouldn’t hurt.”

Dolly nodded. Home and healing. 

“Well,” her mum said, and curtly turned back to the table. “Since I knew this would happen, I’ve taken the liberty of gathering a few other things for you.”

She scooped up the materials on the table. She listed off the contents, dumping them into Dolly’s bag one by one. Much to her chagrin, Hop was right when he said her bag would fit a Snorlax, as even a weeks’ worth of food and an entire camping set fit in her bag with room to spare. When she was finished, her mum turned her by her shoulders.

“Off you go, then. Don’t run yourself ragged, let your Pokémon and your friends help you when you need. Especially that Hop, me and his mum have been rooting for the two of you since you met,” she ended with a grin. 

Dolly's cheeks flared red.

“Mum! Don’t make it weird! He’s my best mate, that’s gross,”

“Alright, alright, no need to fuss,” she laughed. “He’s just such a cutie, and so fit now that he's older."

Dolly gagged and her mum rolled her eyes.

" _And_ I know he's such a good friend to you, Dolly.”

With a flustered retort and a final wave, Dolly trotted down the steps from her house and met Hop along Route 1. They meandered their way through the route, into Wedgehurst, gathered their Pokedéxes from Professor Magnolia’s self-proclaimed assistant Sonia, and were then again heading to the Wedgehurst train station. It wasn’t until Hop had the revelation they should fill their teams a bit, then he was running off to Route 2. With a sigh Dolly followed, managed to catch another two Pokémon to add to her team, all the while with that same fire burning within her. An excitable Yamper named Bella joined her and Jackson, and a Wooloo to match Hop’s. Two more was good for now, and that’s all she could catch anyway.

As she and Hop reached the end of Route 2 in a heated discussion about the thickness of Wooloo wool, two glimmering streams of light shot through the sky.

“Did you see that?” Hop gasped, following the trail of light with his finger. “It looks like they landed near Professor Magnolia’s house!”

The pair ran to the end of the route and searched around the grass for the fallen balls of light.

“Over here!” Hop called, beckoning Dolly over to him.

Before them lay two glimmering stones. Each emitted a warm red light, that only glowed more powerfully as they reached for them.

“They’re Wishing Stars!” Hop said again as he turned the stone in his fingers. 

“And not a lot you can do with them in that state,” a voice said.

The pair turned to see an elderly woman walking towards them.

“Hand them to me, dears, and I’ll get them usable for you,”

“Professor Magnolia, thanks!” Hop grinned, elbowing Dolly.

“Y-yes, thanks!”

The pair took a seat on the bench overlooking the lake near Professor Magnolia’s house. Dolly swung her legs back and forth as they waited for her to finish tinkering with their Wishing Stars.

“They say Wishing Stars appear for someone who has a true and burning wish in their heart,” Hop explained, looking over the water. “Makes sense for us, since my wish is to be the greatest Trainer ever.”

Dolly set her head in her hands as she watched Wingulls flap over the water. Made sense for him, sure, but she certainly didn’t care about becoming the greatest Trainer. Did she have a wish in her heart? She thought back to her Pokémon, to Jackson, to Bella, and to her new Wooloo named Lacey. Then she thought even farther back. Perhaps she did have a wish in her heart. 

She was pulled from her thoughts as Professor Magnolia appeared behind them again and handed them two white bracelets. With a brief explanation from the professor and another round of thank-yous, the pair were officially off to their grand adventure. At least, that was what they thought until their train to Motostoke was stopped prematurely.

They looked around the station and Hop pulled aside a rail worker.

“What gives? This isn’t Motostoke,” he said as he set his hands on his hips.

“Righto chap,” the worker said with a nod. “Wooloo on the tracks, can’t move forward. Either back to Wedgehurst, or walk through the Wild Area.”

A grin spread on Hop’s face as he turned to Dolly.

“This is brilliant!” he exclaimed.

“Brilliant?”

“Absolutely!” he replied, and started pulling Dolly along outside the station. “The Wild Area is filled with awesome Pokémon waiting to be caught.”

They followed the brief path out of the station and up to the railing of the dirt plaza.

“Look at that!” Hop continued, leaning on his heels with a whistle. “That’s Motostoke, waaaay off that way! And, between there and here, are countless new Pokémon waiting to be met,”

Hop was vibrating in anticipation as Dolly gazed beyond the fencing into grand fields, lush green grass swaying as far as the eye could see. Little ponds and rivers dappled the landscape, with bright blue water bubbling through. Dolly breathed out in wonder at the beautiful show of nature before them. They heard someone approaching from behind, and Hop turned with a grin.

“Well, if it isn’t Sonia,” he said. 

A tall woman walked up beside them, twisting at her hair with a huff.

“My gran gave me a proper earful, in her own way… said ’Those two young Trainers are setting out on a journey, but what are you doing with your life?’” she said, and her sentence was punctuated with another huff.

“Yeesh, that sounds rough,” Dolly said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sonia replied, waving her off. “Either way, I’m excited to be on the road again. And, I’m curious to see what else I can find out about that Pokémon you two met in the Slumbering Weald, so really the timing works out well.”

Hop was bouncing between his two feet as Sonia spoke.

“Well,” he started. “I’m off to go stick my head in as many of those red glowing dens as I can find. I’m going to battle the snot out of a bunch of Dynamax Pokémon and fill in another page in the tale of my legend. I’m off then, see you in Motostoke, Dolls!”

And with that, he sprinted off into the rolling fields of the Wild Area.

“Ugh, what cheek!” Sonia huffed as they watched their friend disappear into the grass. “You better be careful out there, Dolly, Dynamax Pokémon are on a whole ‘nother level. Either way, though, the Wild Area is waiting for you. This is the start of your real adventure!”

After a wave, Sonia trotted into the Wild Area herself.

Dolly looked out at the rolling fields beyond the fence post. They seemed to stretch until the end of the earth, with Motostoke but a blip in the distance. A lump formed in her throat as she watched clouds rolling across the plains and lakes beyond her.

Hesitate.

Wait.

Go back to Wedgehurst, home to Postwick.

She shook her head fiercely as if to slap the thought away and into the ground. She took a breath in. 

“Well,” she said as she tossed her three Poké Balls out. Jackson, Lacey, and Bella all stood beside her, looking on with curiosity.

“Guess it’s time for an adventure, huh? No more mediocrity.”

Dolly took one step, her foot hovering before it hit the ground. She looked at the ground in front of her and her leather shoe she bought in Wedgehurst years ago when her mum and her moved. It was a little worn, a bit beat up, weathered, but sturdy all the same. It was the nights of crying herself to sleep, the nights she heard her mum cry down the hall. It was the ‘never being a burden,’ never being ‘too much.’ It was being the freak, the weirdo, being called names until she turned into nothing, a nothing that blended in so well with her surroundings. It was the halfheartedly trying only some things on, for fear of the unknown, for fear of what she would do if she dared to look greatness in the eye.

With a breath, she set her foot down. With another breath, she took another step forward. Step. Step. Step. Until she was jogging. Until she was running. Running beyond the train station, running beyond Wedgehurst and Postwick, running beyond moving houses and running beyond her past. Running beyond this Curse and running beyond her insecurities. She felt those memories and feelings and burrs dripping off of her skin as she ran faster and faster. The mediocrity was sliding of like sludge, dripping behind her.

But, she was finally running. She wasn’t sitting on her couch, staring out the window. She wasn’t watching her phone and quelling the throbbing in her chest when she watched each and every Pokémon battle. This is what she had been waiting for. This is what she had been missing. The faint memories of the feeling of freedom started to well again within her soul. They bounded along beside her as she recalled the wind in her hair, the Pokémon by her side. They danced like her Wooloo, Scorbunny, and Yamper did, bounding and dancing along with her as she ran into the hills, into the fields, into the unknown adventure. Out of mediocrity and into greatness.


	3. The Gym Challenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Scorbunny), Bella (Yamper), Lacey (Wooloo)

**Chapter 3 - The Gym Challenge**

It was their third day in the Wild Area. Dolly’s chest heaved as she pried off her boots and inhaled sharply as she peeled off her socks. Laying them out in front of her with a grimace, she slowly wiggled her toes.

They were swollen, with blotches of red pocking where her shoes were too tight. The skin around her blisters were peeling up, just a bit paler than the fresh skin around it. Her legs ached, and her shoulders had a simultaneous dull and sharp shooting where her backpack straps sat. She let out a groan and flopped back onto the grass.

“This is rubbish,” she grumbled. “Hop better be grateful that I’m doing this for him,”

“That’s what you get for always sitting on the couch,” Jackson stated, raising his eyebrows.

“What do you know, we only met a week ago,” she huffed from her spot on the ground. 

Her view of the sunset sky was interrupted by a Scorbunny face.

“Am I wrong? You have like, zero muscle.”

Dolly looked to the side, avoiding eye contact with the Pokémon in front of her. She grumbled as she lifted herself back up to a sitting position, gazing at the camp before her as Jackson trotted off smugly. She lifted her arm and tried to flex. Maybe if she pushed some skin up on her upper arm it could look like a bicep? Whatever. He was just a foot-tall bunny with toothpick arms too, what did he know.

Her team darted about, filled with an unimaginable amount of energy compared to how she was feeling. She leaned back on her elbows as she watched them play. There were only two new team members, a Bunnelby and a Grubbin, who seemed to be getting along fine with the rest of her Pokémon. One more team member and that would be six - couldn’t get too attached to too many, just in case.

It had been a while since Dolly interacted with so many Pokémon at once, and she wasn’t quite sure how to do it. Should she treat them like a classroom of students? As a group of friends? Or something more dramatic, like a team of seasoned warriors or something?

They all cheered as Lacey headbutted Jackson into a tree stump. She scratched the seasoned warriors idea out pretty quickly.

Her stomach tightened as dusk crept over the Wild Area. This night was exactly like the one so many years ago: cool, a slight breeze, the grass already dewing over in the spots the sun hadn’t hit for a while. It had the type of air that sticks to the lungs a bit, then chills and makes nose hair prickle. The kind where her feet ached, dirty and grass-stained, but it was okay because she could wash them up quick before supper - but only when mum flashed the back porch light a couple times. It was after a day of adventuring, of training, and plenty of laughter. Of just her and her Pokémon. Just one, at that time, though. 

Her Pokémon and her used to dart around the forest with the flower crowns they made together, giggling as they pricked their fingers on burrs and thorns as they reached for the Pecha berries in the bushes behind her old house. She could remember how she smiled, what her laugh sounded like. Her heart clenched in her chest at the thought. That was before…

Dolly fiercely shook her head, almost whipping her glasses off her face. She shook it again for good measure, as if to shake the memories out altogether.

That was a different time, a different life. That was before she moved to Postwick. Perhaps it won’t happen like that this time, she faintly hoped. She let out another deflated sigh as the sun finally sank beneath the horizon. Perhaps things will be different this time.

“Alright, team,” she called, forcing herself up off the ground, wincing as little pebbles dug into her raw feet. “Who wants some grub?”

They all circled around her gleefully with cries of ‘Me! Me!’ and an excited buzz from Sap, her new Grubbin.

After a quick batch of curry, they settled in for the night. They all snuggled up against one another as Dolly unfurled her tent like a blanket over all of them. After an unfortunate escapade filled with plenty of frustrated grunts, an accidental fireball, tears in the fabric, and an apologetic Yamper, their first night in the Wild Area set the stage for the rest of their nights in the Wild Area: all sleeping together to keep warm under their dilapidated tent shreds. At least it wasn’t raining this time.

It took eight hours, Jackson leading morning calisthenics, breakfast porridge, and they were on the road again.

“Miss Dolly, are we almost there?” Lacey asked, trotting along beside her. “I don’t mean to complain none, but some of the folks on the team are getting real tired of traipsin’ through these fields,” 

Dolly reached down and gave her Wooloo a pat on the head.

“I’m sure we’re getting close, Lacey,” she said. “Motostoke’s getting bigger by the day. I suspect we’ll be there by lunch time.”

It was true. The city that was just a speck at the Wild Area train station was now a looming industrial giant.

“ _I_ don’t mind travellin’ so much anymore, though, Miss Dolly,” Lacey said, looking down sheepishly and brushing against Dolly’s leg. “At first, I was real scared, but now it’s not so bad. I like havin’ everyone on the team, they’re all real friendly. An’ you’re a real good Trainer,”

Warmth spread throughout her chest and Dolly bit her smile back. Maybe keeping two would be fine.

As they traveled closer, Motostoke seemed to loom taller and taller, and yet the path winding there looked longer and longer. They encountered an array of wild Pokémon, built up a few levels, and finally made their way up the steps of Motostoke. 

Dolly’s legs wobbled as she took in a breath. The city was magnanimous. Bricks, vendors, and Pokémon lined every inch of the streets and smoke billowed out of the skyscraper-like pipes that rose in the air. Windows sparkled in the sun, casting an orange glow on the city. 

She had a crick in her neck, but she didn’t care as she arched her head to see the tops of the buildings. The river gushed beneath the bridge, coursing through the city just as the residents above did. Dolly stopped at the end of the bridge, taking in the rest of the site before her. People and Pokémon bustled to and fro, stepping around the wide-eyed Trainer standing in the middle of the street. She had never seen buildings so tall, not even before she moved to Postwick. The city seemed to buzz with music, as Pokémon sang with their Trainers on the corners, and shopkeepers shouted their deals from their welcome mats. Dolly grinned as the magnanimity of the city soaked into her skin. 

“Hey, Dolly, you finally made it!” a voice called. 

Dolly waved a greeting as a tall red head sauntered up to her. Sonia stopped and twirled her hair with a grin.

“Real ace of you to make it through the Wild Area! Seems like your trek ran you ragged, though,” she added with a pitiful glance to Dolly’s haphazard appearance.

Dolly looked through her smudged glasses to the rips in her dress, the mud on her shoes, and the dirt under her nails. Yikes. 

Sonia offered her a pity laugh and set her hands on her hips.

“Alright, here’s the deal. It’s barely the afternoon, and something about the way your mouth’s been hanging open this whole time tells me you’ve never been to a city like this, and Sonia’s here to show you around. Let’s pick up some new clothes for you, I’ve got a friend at a salon down the road that can fix up your hair, and then I’ll treat you to lunch, sound good?”

“If Sonia’s buying lunch, count me in!” another voice called. Hop jogged up to meet them, grinning. His eyes widened when he took in Dolly’s haphazard appearance and he took in a quick breath through his teeth. “Yeesh, Dolls, did you crawl all the way here?”

Dolly was about to retort but Sonia interrupted.

“Dolly and I are actually about to go shopping and get our hair done, if you’d like to join that?” she asked, setting a hand on her hip. “If not then buzz off.”

“Buzzing off,” Hop said with a salute. “I’ll catch you guys later then.” 

Sonia and Dolly laughed at the grimace on Hop’s face and they headed toward lunch first (per the request of Dolly’s grumbling stomach), then the boutiques together. She tossed out her old pink dress in favor of non-disgusting, inconspicuous, normal leggings and shirt. Sonia kept trying to get Dolly to buy lots of frills, lots of patterns, and lots of blindingly-bright neon that made Dolly's skin look like washed-out paper. After a little back and forth, Sonia did persuade her to buy a skirt to go over her leggings and some peach-colored glasses, just to liven up her look at least a _little_ bit. 

“Thanks for all of this, Sonia, but you really don’t need to spend all this money on me,” Dolly said, feeling along the fringe of her new black skirt. “I feel a little guilty,”

Sonia waved her off, grinning and twirling her hair again.

“Oh, come off it. I’ve always wanted a little sister to spoil, and you looked so bedraggled coming up those steps to Motostoke. Gran gave me some pocket change, and it’s the least I could do for my best mate’s little brother’s best mate.”

It took her a second to do the mental math as Sonia laughed again. 

“Speaking of those two, though,” Sonia continued as they made their way toward the salon. “Leon said you can talk to Pokémon, is that true?”

“Um, yeah. Sometimes it’s nice, sometimes it’s annoying,” she shrugged. She really wouldn’t mind not hearing those two Sqwovets screaming at each other every time she sat in her living room.

“Fascinating,” Sonia replied, looking into the sky. “Do you know why? Like, did you learn it somehow?”

Dolly shrugged, watching two kids kick around a ball with a Pikachu.

“I dunno, I’ve been able to for as long as I can remember.”

“Are there other odd things that happen with you and Pokémon?” Sonia asked.

A bell tinkled as they walked into the salon. Dolly shrugged again as the beautician took her bag and jacket. Why was everyone pushing this today? When Hop found out she could talk to Pokémon he just said ‘wicked,’ asked if his Wooloo thought he was cool, and they moved on with their lives.

Sonia squinted her eyes.

“Have you lived around Pokémon much?”  
  
“Just as much as any other person.”

The beautician guided the pair further into the building.

“Are you good at learning new languages?”

“Not really, sometimes I feel barely fluent in the one I do know.”

“What about social cues, body language, things like that?”

“Hardly.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have the Nuzlocke Curse, would you?”

Dolly’s jaw dropped and her eyes went wide.

“How did you..?”

Sonia nodded, a slight smile appearing on her face.

“Lucky guess. I read about it in a book recently. It was about communicating well with Pokémon, and it listed that as an exceedingly rare condition - so rare that it’s only been speculated about in theory. I’ve never heard about a real human being able to speak to Pokémon, so I’ve been dying to ask you ever since Leon told me. Can you tell me about it?”

Sonia seemed pretty normal, pretty nice, and genuinely interested in Dolly. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to let her know a little bit…Just the basics.

“I’ve never met anyone to know about it besides me and my mum... But I’ve known I’ve had it for a couple years, now. Not sure if I was born with it or if it came along later,” Dolly said as the beautician leaned her back in the basin. 

“Girl, I’ve never seen so many sticks in a client’s hair,” the beautician grimaced to herself as she picked out remnants of the Wild Area. 

“When did you start noticing signs?”

“I think I was about seven or eight,” Dolly continued as Sonia looked on inquisitively, a hand on her chin. 

“That same book guessed Trainers could only catch a limited amount of Pokémon, is that true too?” Sonia asked as she spun in the chair beside her. “The authors predicted it’s something about the blood of the Trainer, counteracts something in the technology of the Poké Ball, interacts with the language part of the brain or something. But again, it’s all just speculation.”

Dolly pursed her lips at the concept. After she caught her first Pokémon, she tried a billion times to catch others around her house, only for the Poké Balls to break.

“That might explain why I always feel so tingly, too,” Dolly whispered, looking at her hands. 

“Tingly?” Sonia repeated, raising an eyebrow.

“You know how you feel when a body part falls asleep, and just starts to wake up? It’s like a bunch of Beedrill stinging at numb skin. It doesn’t hurt, it’s just really uncomfortable, so I don’t try too many extra times anymore,” Dolly said, her voice tapering off as the beautician shampooed through her hair. “It does really hurt, sometimes, but that’s just when...um…never mind…”

When what? They died? Sonia was nice enough, but Dolly didn’t really want to delve into that bit or her backstory with a woman she met a week ago. Sonia seemed to know at least two things about the Curse, but Dolly was hoping that was the limit. She couldn’t decide if she wanted those authors to have written more information for her own sake, or less so she’d get fewer questions from Sonia.

After the beautician brought her to the chair and Dolly picked out a new hairstyle, she explained to Sonia a bit more.

“I’ve never met anyone else with something like this, so it’s kind of hard to measure,” she said with a shrug.

“It sounds interesting,” Sonia said, twirling her hair. “Gran’s got me on this historical project right now, and that’s all the book mentioned anyway. I haven’t been able to find any other reliable sources, but if I find out anything else about the Nuzlocke Curse, I’ll let you know.”

“Alright, honey, take a look.”

Dolly grinned at her fresh, new appearance, thanked the beautician, tipped her significantly, and she and Sonia stepped back out into the setting sun of Motostoke. As they walked down the brick streets, Dolly tugged at her new hairstyle. She had never gotten her hair _longer_ before, so she wasn’t quite used to how it sat. She fiddled with it and the shopping bags she was holding when then they spotted Hop and Wooloo walking down the main street.

“Hey girls, finally done with all your doll houses and pillow figh-” Hop stopped mid-sentence, his jaw still hanging open.

“What?” Dolly asked, looking behind her. 

His eyebrows pulled together and he blinked a few times.

“You look...different.”

Dolly raised an eyebrow.

“Astute observation. Apparently Fairy-type Pokémon can make your hair longer in minutes. It felt pretty weird. My mum’s always cut my hair and I’ve never had it done before, much less gotten it so much longer in one sitting. Keeps getting caught in my bag straps, though,” Dolly added with a grumble, hiking her backpack up again.

She picked at the ends of a few platinum strands that laid over her shoulders. Hop's gaze flitted to her face and lingered just another second. She noticed his jaw clench as he swallowed.

“Huh.”

She wasn’t quite sure why, but Dolly was also glad the beautician persuaded her into letting her test some new mascara on her. After another beat Hop flung his arms behind his head.

“Pokémon are ace, don’t you think Dolls? ‘Cept giving a Feebas long hair still makes it a Feebas,” he ended with a grin.

“I oughta smack that stupid smirk right off your face,” Dolly growled. “I’m sure this Wishing Star can add some extra damage.”

“Sorry Dolls, as much as I’d love to stay around for that, I’ve got a date with a Gym Challenge registration sheet! I’ll save you a spot!”

And with that he was off, sprinting through the streets of downtown Motostoke.

“...Twit.”

“Happy to see you two embrace a healthy rivalry,” Sonia sighed from beside her. “To be fair though, I’ve never heard Hop pay attention to anything that wasn’t a Pokémon or his famous brother. Pretty impressive he noticed a change in you,”

“Come off it, Sonia,” Dolly grumbled. “The bloke called me an ugly fish.”

“Can’t deny that one, mate," Sonia chuckled. "Anyway, you ready for the opening ceremony? How is your Pokédex coming along?”

“I’ve caught a couple Pokémon...they’re a pretty lively bunch.” She flinched at the memory of her mangled tent and their weird game of seeing who can headbutt Jackson the farthest.

“Now that you’ve freshened up a bit, why don’t you head up to check in at Motostoke Stadium? It’s right up the road,” Sonia said, motioning to the monumental stadium at the end of the path. “Just follow the purple head sprinting down the road and you’ll get there in a flash.”

Dolly left Sonia with a wave and a thanks, then set off for the stadium. She was surprised to run into Leon, who directed her up the lift and to the front doors. Although he was eloquent and charming as always, she successfully managed out a grunt of gratitude like the Conkledurr she was.

“Took you long enough,” Hop grinned. “Coulda got a manicure myself with how long I had to wait here,”

“You could have gone in, you know,” Dolly said, rolling her eyes.

“I couldn’t have you miss this part of my legend! What kind of mate would I be?”

Dolly rolled her eyes again as the pair pushed through the grand glass doors to Motostoke Stadium. Their jaws dropped in unison.

“Would you look at this,” Hop breathed. “This place is packed with Gym Challengers! Every one of these folks is another rival!”

The brick walls arched to the ceiling, which to Dolly, seemed like a thousand stories high. The grand entryway was draped with bold banners advertising the Challenge and Dolly couldn’t help but breathe out in wonder. Bold colors and banners and smiling faces adorned the atrium, and Dolly arched her neck to see through the domed-glass ceiling.

She looked around her in awe as she and Hop made their way through the crowd. The magnificent atrium was filled with Gym Challengers of every shape and size. There were all types of people surrounding them; some their age, some older adults, and even some who could have been old enough to be her grandparents. There were Pokémon fluttering around as well, weaving in between the legs of the hopeful Trainers. A Blipbug here, a Butterfree there, and Dolly almost lost her footing when a Morpeko scampered between her legs.

A girl about her age grabbed him up off the ground. She dusted off her dress and tossed one of her dark pigtails out of her face as she stood up, the Morpeko secure in her arms.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” the girl said. “He gets real excited ‘round so many people, but you’re looking a bit gobsmacked by all this. You must be from some small country town, is that it?”

She nodded. This girl had a soft and unassuming smile - Dolly liked this fellow Gym Challenger already.

“Yeah, from Postwick.”

“I’m quite the same myself, I'm from a small town off Route 9. What’s your name?” the girl asked, patting her Morpeko.

“Dolls, come on, we still need to register!” Hop called from the desk.

“Dolls, huh? That’s an odd name,” the girl said with a smile. She held out her hand. “I’m Marnie.”

“It’s Dolly, actually, short for Dolores. He just calls me that, but his name is Hop, so mine’s not so bad in comparison,” Dolly said, shaking her hand.

“I look forward to battling you, Dolly. And beating you,” she added with a soft grin.

She could feel the buzz of friendly competition in the air between them. She couldn’t help but grin as well.

“We'll see about that, Marnie,”

Dolly jogged up to the front desk where Hop was waiting in line to register. 

The boy in front of Hop turned after finishing his registration, looked him up and down, then shoved past his shoulder. Hop let out a grunt and Dolly scoffed as he sauntered out into the crowd. 

“Seriously? What a piece of work…” Hop grumbled, rubbing his shoulder.

The League staff at the counter called for the next in line, and Dolly handed over her endorsement from Leon. She could see the staff member’s eyes grow wide through his sunglasses.

“Fancy that,” he whispered. “This is the first time we’ve had a Challenger endorsed by the Champion!”

Hop grinned in return, slapping his endorsement on the counter next to Dolly’s.

“Well, now you’ve had two, because I am as well!”

“The two of you must be something special,” the staff member said with a nod to the both of them. He flipped through the pages on the clipboard in front of him. “Alright, you’ve both been successfully registered as Gym Challengers. You can request a number, otherwise we can assign one to you. What’ll it be?”

Dolly scratched her chin. When she was younger, she and her first Pokémon had a competition of who could shove the most jellybeans in their mouth. Dolly won with a high score of fifty-two, and from then on that had always been her favorite number. 

“I’ll take number fifty-two, if it’s available.”

The League staff flipped through his papers again.

“It is! It’ll be 052,” he said, scribbling down on his paper. Then, he looked to Hop. “And for you?”

“Eh, number one is already taken, just give me whatever,” he said, folding his hands behind his head.

“How does 189 sound?”

“Sounds like the number of the next Champion,” he grinned. “I’ll take it!”

The League staff raised his eyebrows, and she could see the faint outline of his rolling eyes from behind his sunglasses. She wondered how many times he had heard that line before.

“You can pick up your uniforms to the left,” he said, gesturing. “The opening ceremony starts tomorrow at 09:00 sharp, don’t be late.”

Sure, Dolly's main goal of all this nonsense wasn’t necessarily to be the Champion, but now, after looking around at all of the other dewy-eyed Gym Challengers, a fire of competition rose within her. She used to be good at Pokémon battles, and directing her team through the Wild Area came as second nature as riding a bike. Suddenly, the risk of it all started to finally be outweighed by the reward of victory. The thrill of competition, of the lights and the cheers, all of it made her think that maybe this whole ordeal wouldn’t be so bad after all. It could maybe be fun, even.

Hop and Dolly made their way to the Budew Drop Inn, where apparently Chairman Rose had reserved rooms for all the Gym Challengers. They found Sonia in the lobby, stating that she was researching the mysterious Pokémon that were said to be in the Slumbering Weald. She dove into Galar’s history and the tale of a great hero who saved the country. Dolly zoned out as she talked, looking around the hotel lobby. A group of people all with pink hair were standing at the registration table. They were all wearing matching outfits, too, maybe they were a band or something? Did the opening ceremony have a half-time show?

She focused again as Hop elbowed her in the ribs and she let out a grunt.

“Did you hear that, Dolls? Apparently, this hero guy had a sword and a shield. I wonder if it has anything to do with what you heard in the Slumbering Weald?”

“Oh, yeah, maybe,” Dolly said, wondering if Sonia noticed her not paying attention. “Wait, actually, yeah maybe!” she almost shouted, focusing in again. “Have you found anything about a shield, Sonia? Or about, you know…the other thing?”

Sonia scratched her chin and shook her head.

“Not particularly, no. About either topic,” she added with a shrug. “Once I find out anything more specific, you’ll be the first to know.”

If that thing in the Slumbering Weald really had some connection to Galar’s history, then maybe she could even learn more about her Curse as well. It did tell her to ‘break the Curse,’ after all. Dolly shoved the hope of breaking the Curse pretty deep down a long time ago, though.

Tagging along with Hop for this Gym Challenge was turning out to be pretty lucrative. Hopefully Sonia would run across some new information for her soon. Assuming her lesson was over, they waved goodbye to Sonia and headed up to the registration counter, only to be blocked by the weird band-looking group. After a couple threats were thrown at them, they learned they were called ‘Team Yell,’ then Dolly and Hop defeated them all within a five-minute span. Dolly was surprised to see Marnie walking up the steps as soon as they had finished. Marnie smiled at the two of them again as they got back into the line to check in. The three of them chatted a bit, learning she was from a town called Spikemuth. It certainly sounded more interesting than Postwick.

The night came and went and before she knew it, and it was time to line up for the opening ceremony. Her nerves tingled as she and Hop grinned at one another, the anticipation palpable in the air. Dolly could feel a lump of nervousness in her throat. One by one they lined up, all waiting to enter what they thought would be their pitch one day.

As she and the rest of the Challengers waited, they heard Rose address the crowd, welcoming them to the Gym Challenge. His powerful voice echoed throughout the stadium.

“It is my pleasure to announce that finally,” he paused. “The Galar region Gym Challenge is about to begin!”

The stadium erupted into cheers as he smiled around the stadium. She had to admit, even though her heart was beating in her throat, Rose had quite the aptitude for commanding a room - stadium, even. As she and the other Gym Challengers waited in the tunnel, his voice continued.

“Participants must defeat the eight Gym Leaders and gather the eight Gym Badges to prove their skill as a Trainer! Only the most worthy will have the honor of challenging the greatest Champion in history!”

Again, the crowd went wild at the mention of their Champion.

“Now,” Rose called, gesturing grandly. “I would like to invite the Gym Leaders to show themselves!”

As he introduced each Gym Leader, Dolly’s heart pounded in her chest. It had been a long time since she had felt like this, such a rush, such a thrill, and to think it was only a week ago she had sat on her couch for three days straight.

It was time to introduce the Gym Challengers. Each name was called, and one by one the other Gym Challengers moved forward, walking onto the pitch. A couple A’s, one B, two C’s…

And she was next. Her heart was beating in her throat as she waited for the announcer to call her name. A League staff ushered her forward. 

“Number 052, Challenger Dolly!” the announcer's voice boomed over the arena.

It was like she was waiting her entire life to hear it. It was like she was waiting her entire life to feel the vibration in her veins as the crowd roared for this new Challenger, for her future matches, for her. She stepped out of the tunnel, into the light, as the waves and power erupted from the stands. Even if she was only going to battle through one Gym, she would remember this moment for the rest of her life. 


	4. Just Six, but Seven is Fine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Scorbunny), Bella (Yamper), Lacey (Wooloo), Orchid (Bunnelby), Sap (Grubbin)

**Chapter 4 - Just Six, but Seven is Fine**

Dolly changed out of her uniform as quickly as she could, not wanting to wait another second to enthuse with Hop about what just happened. He must have had the same idea, because they both came sprinting out at the same time and nearly smashed into each other.

“That was wicked!” Hop yelled, pumping his fists.

“I know!” Dolly shouted, jumping up and down.

“Standing there on the pitch,”

“In the stadium,”

“In front of everyone!” he finished, clenching his fists. “I can barely contain myself!”

“My heart’s racing!”

The two blathered back and forth, talking a mile a minute, until two others approached them.

A familiar twirl of dark red and gold flickered, alongside a crisp light gray. Dolly was practically catapulted into the wall by the amount of charisma these two men brought as they walked forward. She had seen them both a thousand times through a screen, but something about the way Rose’s light green eyes pierced into hers made her heart quicken.

Oh boy.

“Seems like the two of you enjoyed the opening ceremony by the sound of it! You must be the two Trainers our Champion endorsed himself,” Rose said with a charming smile. “Welcome, and it’s a delight to meet you.”

He shook Hop’s hand, then turned to Dolly, taking her hand in his as well. Not for a handshake, however, as he placed his other hand on top of hers. His light green eyes met hers as he continued.

“I’m Rose, of course.”

Dolly’s eyes flicked from his eyes down to her hand held within his. She swallowed.

Oooh boy.

He needed to stop looking at her because sweet Arceus were those green eyes mesmerizing. Not this again. Why must she be bombarded with so many charismatic men? Her poor heart could hardly handle it. She swallowed again when Rose turned her hand over and smiled inquisitively.

“Oh, and what’s this? I see you both already possess Dynamax Bands,”

She wished he would let go of her hand before it slipped out from how much she was sweating. Her hand probably felt like a Cloyster tongue. He looked into her eyes again. 

“It seems like you’ve been led here by the guiding light of the Wishing Stars.”

Instead of an eloquent and insightful reply, as was her full intent, Dolly’s throat just let out an unfortunate squeak. She could see Hop in her periphery raising an eyebrow at her and boy did she want to smack him. And herself. She thought she was more robust than this, but alas, she was just a wafery napkin that was easily charmed by powerful men.

Rose finally released her hand from his and stood back, smiling at the two of them.

“I daresay this year’s Gym Challenge is looking to be an absolute blast. Very good, very good indeed! The whole Galar region is in for some excitement!” he said. After a quick glance at his watch he gave them a slight bow. “I’m afraid I must be off, but best of luck to you both!” 

Tall, handsome, charismatic men: 2. Dolly: 0.

Hop nudged her and waggled his eyebrows as Rose left. She shoved him.

Leon came up next, pumping his fists as she had seen his brother do so often. He explained to them a bit about the next steps of the Gym Challenge, and about something else too, but she only watched his golden eyes sparkle. And his arms when he moved his cape back as it cascaded over his broad shoulders. And his dazzling smile. She wondered if the previous Champion wore their shirt as tight as he did. What was he saying? Dolly felt like she was going to explode when he ruffled her and Hop’s hair and sent them off with some more Poké Balls and potions.

Hop whistled as they made their way to Route 3. 

“It’s a good thing I’m going to be Champion and the one working with Rose, huh Dolls? Not sure Galar has enough towels for how much you were drooling. And you know, you’ve got to actually win your way up with Pokémon battles. You can’t just persuade Rose to give you Badges by using… _other_ means,” he said with a wink.

Dolly gasped and smacked his arm.

“What kind of girl do you take me for? Arceus,” she laughed. “It’s not my fault he has hypnotizing green eyes.”

“Gross, girls are so weird," Hop said, pretending to gag. "He’s a tubby middle-aged man. Lee told me Rose picks his nose,”

“He did not tell you that!” Dolly laughed. “Whatever, you’re just jealous he’s handsome and magnetic and intelligent and you’ve got less charm than a brick,”

“What!” Hop yelped, stopping in the road. “I’m charming!”

Dolly continued on, flipping her hair behind her shoulder.

“I don’t see any girls drooling over _you_ ,”

“I’ll prove it to you with a Pokémon battle, how ‘bout that?”

"Not sure what that has to do with charm, but I can’t stand here with you assuming I’m not going to win again,” she grinned, pulling up her sleeves.

The two Trainers battled in the streets of Motostoke, laughing and mocking one another as they darted about the bricks. Dolly was liking this feeling that continued to burn within her every time she battled. Sometimes it was fire, and sometimes it was a roaring ocean, with waves crashing and resurrecting her soul as she commanded her Pokémon forward.

As Hop withdrew his final Pokémon, he set his hands on his hips. 

“Just what I’d expect from my rival! You know what? I’ll even give you one of my League cards! That’s how good I think you did in that battle,” he grinned, plopping his card into her hand. When he did, Dolly laughed again.

“What am I supposed to do with this? Floss my teeth with it?”

Hop reeled back at her comment.

“How dare you! That will one day be a limited-edition collector’s item! Keep it safe and sound and one day it’ll be worth millions,” he said with a decisive nod.

Dolly rolled her eyes as they continued into Route 3. Hop was nearly bouncing around her by the time they got to the edge of Motostoke.

“Just go,” she smiled, rolling her eyes again. “I don’t fancy sprinting everywhere anyway.”

“Great see you in Turffield then!” he beamed, already rushing toward Route 3. “Hello Galar! Meet your next Champion!” he called, startling a few Rookidees out of a nearby tree. “From the sleepy town of Postwick - it’s me, Hop!”

Dolly let out another laugh as she shook her head, meandering into Route 3 herself.

The fresh air filled her lungs as she took in a deep breath, the sun shining brightly upon her. She stretched up toward it, flexing her fingers. She agreed with Sonia when she said it was nice to be on the road - minus her aching feet and aching shoulders and aching back, at least the sunshine and breeze were nice. She was also excited to use the new tent she got in Motostoke instead of using that old fabric shrapnel as a blanket.

She looked about her, tall grass filling in more of the pathway forward. The blades waved gently in the wind as Dolly peered through. A new route meant a new Pokémon to add to the team. She could catch one more Pokémon, she would allow herself one final team member, and now it was just a matter of who it would be.

Her eyes locked onto a bit of brown trudging through the grass. There. She tossed out Jackson and pointed to the Pokémon flank facing away from them. He nodded, prowling closer, ears flat against his head.

In a flash he leaped, chomping down on the Pokémon. 

“Nice hit!” Dolly enthused, running up to the two Pokémon. “I think?”

Jackson’s face was flush in the dirt as a Mudbray held it there. He squirmed and shouted a few choice words, to no avail.

“You a Pokémon Trainer?” the Mudbray asked, still holding Jackson down with his hoof.

“Uh, yeah?”

He nodded his head toward Motostoke.

“Saw you and that purple-haired lad battling, saw you could talk to Pokémon. Mind if I come with you?”

“Oh. But, uh” she stuttered, glancing around. “Aren’t we supposed to battle? And I catch you proper?”

The Mudbray shrugged, taking his hoof off Jackson and setting it on the ground. Jackson shot up and gasped, flinging mud onto her shoes. 

“You sent out a Fire-type Pokémon. Didn’t want to bother hurting him if I was just going to come with you anyway. Not much to do around here.”

Dolly stuck her lip out in contemplation.

“Well, I suppose that’s pretty considerate of you. I imagined my last Pokémon catch would be a little more... exciting?”

“Yeah come on, I want to battle!” Jackson enthused, hopping around the Mudbray. He threw a couple air-punches, then tripped over a rock and back into the mud.The Mudbray shrugged again as Jackson fussed.

“‘Fraid you won’t get much excitement out of me. That’s why I’ve been looking for a Trainer to follow around, anyway. Name’s Hudson.”

“I’m Dolly. Welcome to the team, then, Hudson,”

He nodded as they continued along Route 3. Jackson kept punching at Hudson who only walked stoically along.

“Come _on_ , Hudson! I’ve got all this energy and I want to _battle_!” he roared, reaching his fists to the sky. He punched a Zigzagoon, it fainted, and Jackson evolved into a Raboot.

Dolly couldn’t help but chuckle as Jackson sprinted around her and Hudson. 

As the trio made their way through Route 3, battling and leveling and chatting, Dolly eventually ran into Sonia, who was gazing out over an energy plant in the distance.

“Heya, Gym Challenger!” she grinned, turning to Dolly as she approached. “You looked real ace out there during the opening ceremony! Oh, but where’s Hop?”

“He went on ahead,” she said, rolling her eyes. Sonia grinned.

“He can’t sit still at all, can he? Guess he really wants to catch up to his brother.”

Dolly shrugged as Sonia continued explaining about the local surroundings. She mentioned a building off in the distance that Rose owned, and suddenly Dolly was much more interested in the conversation.

“Can’t say I really get him, but the chairman seems like a pretty brilliant guy, right? He even endorsed a Challenger this time too, I think his name was Challenger Bede.”

Dolly nearly swooned, thinking of Rose and their interaction earlier. Of course he was brilliant, _Sonia_. He was brilliant, charming, enrapturing, handsome, captivating, etcetera. She thought back to those dark features, those dangerous eyes, that chiseled jawline. 

“Oh, and here, these should help you,” Sonia suddenly added with a grin, holding out her hand. She plopped two revives into Dolly’s hand. Dolly stared at the two yellow tablets for a moment, her eyebrows pulling together.

“Oh, uh...thanks Sonia, but I can’t accept these,” she muttered, looking down and handing them back.

“Wow, look at you, Miss Confident!" Sonia said, letting out a laugh. "Don’t think you’ll ever lose, huh?” 

“No, I...I can’t use them. ‘Nother part of the Curse.” Dolly said quietly, still kicking at the ground. Sonia tilted her head.

“What do you mean? Do they have the same effect as throwing too many Poké Balls?”

“Not quite. But they definitely won’t work for me.”

Sonia nodded, understanding dawning on her face. Dolly let out another breath. 

“That part is the hardest to talk about, for obvious reasons. I figured you’d think I was selfish and cruel and whatever since I was battling again, risking the lives of my Pokémon like that.”

Sonia paused, scratching her chin again. Then, she shook her head.

“I don’t think less of you, Dolly. From what I’ve seen, you treat your Pokémon with a lot of love, care, and respect. They all seem to like you, too. And hey,” she said with a smile, setting her hands on her hips. “Maybe that part of the Curse doesn’t affect you anymore anyway. I’d say keep battling and moving forward in the Gym Challenge - maybe we’ll both learn more about it as we go along like this.”

Dolly couldn’t help but smile at the woman before her. Even though she wasn’t _positive_ Pokémon fatality was part of her Curse still, it’s not like that was something she wanted to test anytime soon.

Sonia saw her off to Galar Mine No. 1, Dolly trying her best to be subtle when asking more about Rose. Just subtle things like his energy plant and his chairmanship and if he was married or not. Subtly, of course.

Dolly grimaced as she walked into the mine, a layer of grime and dust already forming on her clothes. She peered about, taking in the view of the new scenery before her. It was dirty, dusty, and gross. Little Pokémon darted about, popping up out of the dirt, but she was at six Pokémon, the limit she set herself, so she didn’t bother catching any as she traversed through the mine. After their training, she learned Hudson was quite the powerhouse. He obliterated the first Roggenrola they ran into anyway, so no new Pokémon even she wanted.

As she trekked farther in, her distaste for the mine wavered as she noticed little outcroppings of gemstones sparkling between cracks in the wall. Then she stepped in a Diglett hole, nearly rolled her ankle, and her distaste was right back where she started.

After following the Carkol tracks farther, Dolly could see daylight reflecting off of some of the gemstones in the walls. She let out a sigh, hoping she was getting close to leaving this rubbish mine. Her shoes and ankles were caked in dust and all she wanted was a hot shower. As she followed the tracks to the end of the mine, she saw someone standing in the way of the exit, looking about the room.

He looked to her as she approached. Had she met this guy before? His huge pink coat looked familiar...

“Coming this way? I’d advise against it. Any Trainer with a Wishing Star is in for a beating from me and my Pokémon,” he smirked, shoving his hand into his pocket, tossing a Poké Ball into the air with the other. 

Great? She just wanted to take a shower.

“You. You’re the Gym Challenger endorsed by the Champion, aren’t you. What a joke,” he snickered. “You’re aware the chairman is more important than the Champion, correct?”

How dare he pit those two glorious men against each other. 

“Uh...do I know you?” Dolly asked, peering around him to the exit of the mine. 

“I was chosen by the chairman himself, and that makes me more amazing than you!” he laughed, still tossing his Poké Ball into the air. 

A memory of him shoving Hop in the Motostoke atrium flashed through her head. So, she _had_ seen him before. Was this that Challenger Bede Sonia mentioned earlier? What a stupid name to go with such stupid hair.

“Uh. Right. Look mate, I just want to get to Turffield,” she said, trying to sidestep around him. “Not looking for Wishing Stars or the bother,”

Dolly's brow furrowed as he blocked her path, standing to his full height.

“I _said_ any Trainer who already has one _is in for a beating,_ ” the boy growled. “Are you deaf, or are you as stupid as the other bloke who the Champion endorsed?”

Her eyebrows raised. So that’s how he wanted to play. She took a step back and lifted up her hands in mock-defeat. 

“You’re right, you’re right, my apologies, your majesty,” she said, bowing slightly. “Now, somebody who was endorsed by the most important man in Galar must have an important name, right? What was it again…?”

Dolly pondered, rubbing her finger to her temple. The boy smirked again.

“You’ll do well to remember it,” he started. “It’s B-”

“Brandon...Bryce...Bill…” she interrupted, setting her hands on her hips. She looked up and snapped her fingers. “Ah, I remember! It was Bidet!”

She could practically see the steam shooting from his head.

“Doing the hard work for the hand of Galar,” she continued. “Tell me, Bidet, do you and Oleana take turns wiping the chairman’s a-”

“That’s it!” he fumed, taking a furious stomp forward. “No one makes a fool of me or the chairman. Go, Solosis!”

He chucked his Poké Ball into the space between them and a Solosis’ cry echoed throughout the mine. 

She tossed out her Poké Ball with a yawn and her Grubbin appeared before them. After a few hits, the opposing Solosis was down. Suddenly Dolly was grateful for the challenging training in the cave, as it would have been pretty embarrassing to lose to this guy. It only took a moment for Dolly to realize the pattern unfolding before her. That was quite a bit of pink...and quite a bit of Psychic. What a shame that her Grubbin was Bug-type. 

It didn’t take long before her opponent was defeated and even more furious. He clenched his fists and took a step toward her. She stood her ground, staring up into his eyes as he glared down at her. After a moment he paused. 

“Fine. It’s fine. I wasn’t even trying that hard anyway,” he grumbled, slapping some coins into her hand.

Bede took a step back and looked her up and down. Subtle.

“Well that was unexpected,” he laughed. “I suppose you’re more able than I thought.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Thanks, I guess. Off to Turffield then. Bye Bidet,” she said as she hiked up her bag and exited the mine. 

The setting sun shone brilliantly over the fields of wheat unfolding before her. It took her a moment for her eyes to adjust, but once she had she took in a breath.

Wheat fields rolled over the hills as far as the eye could see. There were trees dappled throughout the landscape, and giant stones artfully placed throughout. She could see Turffield in the distance, with its Gym watching over the town. This was certainly a much better view than the mine, she thought, as she started towards the route. She took a couple steps, tripped, and landed face-first into a pit of mud. 

“Sorry,” she heard someone squeak.

“Who in the bloody he-” Dolly looked up and was met with a pair of big, brown eyes. Her mouth fell open. Unfortunately for her, some mud fell in. “An Eevee! No way!” she yelped, mud spitting on the Eevee’s face.

The Eevee cowered and started scampering away. 

“Wait, hold on!” Dolly called, quickly picking herself up out of the mud. “I’ve only got one shot per route, I’m not letting this one go. Go, Jackson, catch that Eevee!”

Jackson took off sprinting. In a decisive tackle both Jackson and the Eevee were on the ground, rolling, tackling, biting. The dust was kicking up as the two battled, peppering the air around them.

“Careful Jackson, not too much!” she called as she caught up to the two of them. Once the Eevee looked just weathered enough, she tossed a Poké Ball, then it rolled three times and clicked.

“Alright!” Dolly cheered, pumping her fist into the air. “An Eevee, what are the odds of that happening?”

She cheered again, picking the Poké Ball up off the ground. Perhaps having seven overall wasn’t so bad? It’s not like she could let go of an _Eevee_.

“Let’s meet her officially, shall we?” she asked as Jackson came running back to her.

In a flash of light the Eevee was before them again, still panting.

“Here, take this,” Dolly said, kneeling down and holding out an Oran berry. “This’ll make you feel better,”

The Eevee took a cautious step forward, her paw hovering above the ground. After a moment she trotted to the berry and ate it up quickly. Dolly plopped onto the ground completely, crossing her legs. 

“Welcome to the team, little Eevee. Do you have a name?” she asked, picking at the mud that was drying on her face. 

“It’s Posey,” the Eevee whispered, looking at her paws. “Thanks for the berry…”

“Do you like adventure, Posey? Traveling? What do you like to do?”

“I’m Jackson!” Jackson said, interrupting Dolly as he grinned. He stood up to his full two-foot height and stuck out his paw. “Sorry about beating you up!”

“Oh it’s okay,” she said, a small smile appearing on her face as she shook his paw. “I like battling, and I’m pretty good at it, too.”

Jackson grinned and she looked back to the ground bashfully. 

“I’ll say!” Jackson boomed. “Your Bite nearly tore my ear off!” 

“Th-thanks,” she smiled, eyes twinkling. 

After an introduction to the rest of the team, Posey melded in effortlessly. Jackson seemed to be paying her quite a bit of attention, and Dolly made a sly mental note of that. 

After a bit more training, they found a nice outcropping to set up for dinner. Dolly sighed as she took a seat, peeling off her socks and shoes again. Not so blistered this time, she thought as she watched her small Pokémon team playing in the grass. Sap clambered up to sit on her lap.

It had been a while since she lived like this she thought, stroking her now-Charjabug who was emitting sparks in content. She’d never had so many Pokémon on her team, but she did have one once before. 

It was before she and her mum moved to Galar. Even then she was pretty lackluster - all the other kids had hobbies like collecting pretty stones or doing crafts, or playing sports or competitive chess. It wasn’t until she met her in the forest near her home when she was looking for Pecha berries to pick. She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old - even then she could talk to Pokémon, but her mum never let her have any. She was outside, meandering in the woods for the familiar bushes. She remembered it was spring, because her Pokémon’s coat was pink - her favorite color at the time. She was reaching in the bushes, but instead of grabbing a berry, she grabbed the flower on her head. From the second they made eye contact, their bond was solidified. Every morning that spring Dolly would ask her mum if she could go pick more berries because ‘she just really loved Pecha jam,’ and her new Pokémon friend would meet her at the edge of the forest. They would play together, splash in the stream in the forest together, tell stories - everything, really, throughout that spring and summer. It wasn’t until one summer dusk that her friend hadn’t come to meet her at the edge of the forest all day that day.

Dolly had wandered into the forest, a flashlight and the fireflies being the only guiding light as she called for her friend. Then, as she was walking along, she heard a familiar cry. Rushing through the bushes, ignoring the branches whipping at her face, she made it to a clearing in the forest. Her friend was surrounded by Unfezants, clawing and pecking at her in the clearing. Dolly had run up, trying to shoo the birds away as her friend cowered on the ground. It was then that she felt that fire within her first spark. When she and her friend blazed in unison and defeated the swarm of angry Unfezants, _that_ was when the fire within her was ignited. 

Dolly shook her head to the present and watched her new team hop around their makeshift camp. She had been on the road for a while, and she wasn’t any closer to figuring out her Curse than when she started in Postwick. That voice in the Slumbering Weald...what had it said? Shield of Galar? Overcome the Curse? She remembered that part as much. So someone, or something, knew about her Curse besides her mum and Sonia. But what did that mean?

“Miss Dolly, can you tell us another story?”

Dolly jolted into focus as Lacey trotted up to her, sauce from dinner still sticking to her wool.

“Maybe the one about the nice princess with the fluffy hair?” she asked bashfully, kicking at a rock on the ground.

“No, no, tell the one about the ninja who ate all the bananas!” Jackson quipped, bounding up to her as well.

“Or the one about the secretly courageous accountant and that venus flytrap and the treadmill,” Hudson added, joining the other two to sit before Dolly.

“I liked the ninja one too,” Posey added with a brief glance towards Jackson.

Perhaps deciphering her vision was a task for another day. She let out a laugh as she stood from her spot, setting Sap down and dusting off her leggings and skirt. They needed to get back on the road if they wanted to make it to Turffield before the sun set. 

“How about a new story about a Pokémon team who loved washing dishes,”

“That’s lame!” Jackson pouted. “Make something cooler!”

“Alright, alright," Dolly laughed. "I’ll tell one as we clean up. This one is about a Snorlax who couldn’t touch his toes…”

As she wove the narrative for them, her small team cleaned up and set off again. When she finished her Snorlax story, she sent them back into their Poké Balls and hiked her bag up on her shoulders. She started back along the route, picking at the mud that was still caked in her hair. Suddenly she heard a call from behind her.

“Wooloo, where do you think you’re going?”

“I’VE GOT DREAMS TOO BIG FOR THIS PODUNK TOWN!”

Dolly turned just in time to be tackled to the ground by a runaway Wooloo, and for its wool to squish against her face.

It didn’t take long before someone lifted the Wooloo from her and tossed it to the side. Her vision was filled with the worried face of a man above her, his large sun hat blocking out most of the sky. 

“My...Are you okay? You took that Tackle head on…” he said, lifting her to her feet.

Dolly winced as her back pinched when she stood fully. Just something else to add to her repertoire of aches and pains on this journey. She nodded when she saw his worried face.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she grimaced.

“You must be one of those Gym Challengers, right?” the man asked, beckoning the Wooloo to his side. Dolly nodded in response. “Ahh, I thought so. I saw you at the opening ceremony.”

Wow, pretty impressive that he remembered her of all people. She was really hoping no one would have noticed she was there, then no one would notice that she would drop out after this town’s Gym. He stuck out his hand with a friendly grin. 

“My name’s Milo, I’m a Gym Leader and rather partial to Grass-type Pokémon. I’ve been itching to see just how good the Champion-endorsed Gym Challengers are. I can walk you down the rest of the way to Turffield, I’m off there with this little guy anyway,”

Dolly nodded and walked in step with Milo as he chatted with her on their way to Turffield. He was pretty friendly, but she wasn’t sure how many of these questions she wanted to answer. If she was just going to quit after his Gym, the less everyone knew about Challenger 052 the better. They made it into Turffield before the sun fully set, and Milo left Dolly with a wave. She grinned as soon as she saw Hop waiting at the front of the town.

“Dolls I thought I already told you, you can’t win by flirting with every important person in the League!”

"Nice to see you too.”

“How do you manage to get so dirty so quickly? There’s literally mud in your hair,” he grimaced as he fell into step with her.

“Gotta do what I gotta do,” she laughed, picking little pieces out of her hair. “Now where’s the Gym?”

She looked about the town as she followed Hop down the dirt path. It was lush and green, with fields of wheat rolling over into the horizon, trees speckled throughout. Little brick houses sat humbly throughout the fields and dirt roads of the town, accented with colorful flowers, shrubs, and artfully placed wheelbarrows. Tall stones rose from the ground as well, marking the end of each path throughout the village. She and Hop made their way through the town, breathing in the crisp air as the sun continued to set. They finally approached a tall, round building, oddly out-of-character for the humble town.

“That’s Turffield Stadium right there,” he grinned, turning to her. “The place is jam-packed with Challengers, though. It’ll be ages before your turn comes up, but I’ve already got my Badge. I reckon I’m just about the greatest when it comes to wrangling Wooloo, I’ve had plenty of practice at it, after all!”

What? Wooloo? Why was he wrangling his own Wooloo? What did that have to do with the Grass Badge?

“Wow, check you out,” she grinned, flipping the Badge over in her fingers. “Leon better get ready for you and Wooloo.”

Is that what he meant about wrangling Wooloo?

“I’m sure you can win this one, too. You are my rival, after all,” he smiled again. 

She looked up to Hop, up to his familiar face and his familiar smile. She would miss seeing that smile on the daily once she headed back to Postwick. They could always video chat, she supposed. Dolly let out a yawn as she rubbed her hands over her arms, the cold of dusk biting at her.

“Waiting until tomorrow is fine with me, I’m knackered anyway.”

She waved goodbye to Hop and looked back up to the Gym looming before her. It glimmered in the dusk, with the purples and greens contrasting the dark blue sky behind it. Dolly let out a sigh, picking at the skin around her fingers. Her mind flashed back to her first Pokémon, then back to the present. This could be it, she could lose another one. But, she set out to beat at least one Gym, and that’s what she was going to do. Beat Milo then head back to Postwick...maybe she could persuade her mum to let Munchlax have some friends. Bringing home seven Pokémon wouldn’t be so much more than one, right? Dolly speculated different methods of persuasion as the sun finally set over Turffield.


	5. Dusk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Bella (Yamper), Lacey (Wooloo), Sap (Charjabug), Hudson (Mudbray), Posey (Eevee)

**Chapter 5 - Dusk**

“I’ve lived around Wooloo for years and I still can’t get a hang of this,” Dolly panted, shoving her body against the Wooloo. “Come _on_ , why won’t you budge? The rest of your mates are already in the pen!”

Dolly looked to the pen corralling the nineteen other Wooloo. They were slowly meandering around the pen and...out of the pen. She would grow old and die here in this bloody Gym mission at this rate. Dolly let out an exasperated huff.

“If all your friends rolled off a cliff, would you do it?” the Wooloo responded glumly, chewing on the grass as the rest of the Wooloo meandered back around the simulated pasture. Dolly resisted the urge to strangle it.

“Why’d you listen to Hop, huh? What’d he do differently than I’m doing?”

The Wooloo gasped, inhaling the grass it was chewing on. Surprisingly it didn’t react - maybe that was another aspect of Pokémon physiology Dolly was never going to understand. 

“You know _THE_ Hop?!” the Wooloo asked incredulously, whipping around. Dolly flopped to the ground with a _thwump._

The rest of the Wooloo all lifted their heads in unison with an excited gasp.

“HOP?!”

“ _You_ know Hop?!” another Wooloo asked.

“Hop’s the greatest!”

“I love Hop!”

“I’m _IN LOVE_ with Hop!”

“WHERE IS HE?!”

The Wooloo all bleated happily from around the pasture. Dolly smacked her forehead. Of course. _Of course._ No wonder Hop said he breezed past this mission, while Dolly was doomed to sit there for the rest of her life. A lightbulb clicked above her head. 

“What if I told you he’s at the end of this Gym mission?” she said, slowly drumming her fingers together.

After a beat, the Wooloo all erupted into a simultaneous, “YAAAAAY!”

“But you’ve all got to run into the pens and help me get to those stairs at the end!” she called, trying to make herself heard from above the bleating (and one yelling) Wooloo. 

In an instant the Wooloo exploded through the pen. The counter counted twenty, and the next gate opened. Dolly jogged to keep up, assuming the Yampers and Trainers around would block the path of the Wooloo, but the herd annihilated every bush and shrub unlucky enough to be in the way. The Yampers tried to bark but to no avail, each one only jumping out of the way quickly enough to avoid the stampede of infatuated Wooloo. 

A few League staff glared at her as she approached the final staircase as they tried to catch the Wooloo who were now freely rolling around the entire room, breaking through the hedges and wooden signs. Whoops.

She trotted up the steel staircase, offered the cameras a guilty wave as confetti poofed around her, and headed through the doors to the stadium.

She could feel the crowd’s cheers like vibrations in the air as suspense trickled into her blood. The first Gym and final Gym. She made her way through the tunnel toward the light of the stadium, her heart beating in her ears. The old determination began coursing in her veins, the desire for competition replacing any semblance of fear. The same light flickered on again, blazing into a roaring fire as she stepped onto the pitch.

Cheers roared from around her as audience members waved their banners into the air. She couldn’t resist beaming a smile at them and waving to the Rotom camera that flitted about the field. She met Milo in the middle, his smile matching hers.

“Since my Gym is the first, we get a lot of Challengers. I try to keep my mission challenging but that didn’t stop you from completing it! That was uh...quite the unorthodox strategy. I have never seen them behave like that…” he finished, scratching his chin.

“Guess I’m just...really good with Pokémon?” Dolly shrugged, guilty sweat prickling on her brow.

“I think I’ll be the judge of that,” Milo said with a grin. “Ready to go against your first ever Gym Leader?”

Dolly nodded curtly, determination burning in her eyes. She gripped Jackson’s Poké Ball and Leader and Challenger turned, taking their places on opposing sides of the pitch. 

Dolly breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth as she tossed Jackson’s Poké Ball up and down. It popped into the air and fell in rhythm with her heartbeat, the sweat from her non-gloved hand slipping it up easily. She closed her eyes, felt the vibration of the crowd, leaned her arm back, and threw.

In an eruption of cheers and a flash of light, her Raboot appeared before them, darting back and forth on the pitch. Little spurts of fire exploded beneath his feet and the grin on his face was identical to his Trainer’s.

This is what she had been missing. This is what she was waiting for: the eruption from the spectators, the power oozing from Jackson, their bond electrified in a single current as he flawlessly executed her commands. He tore throughout the pitch, spitting balls of flame at Milo’s Gossifleur. It didn’t take long before the Pokémon was defeated.

Milo grinned from across the pitch, giving a silent nod of approval. He sent out his next Pokémon and an Eldegoss appeared before them. 

“Come on then, it’s Dynamax time! You’re about to be uprooted!”

Milo called Eldegoss back to him and a sharp white light surrounded his wrist as his Poké Ball grew huge. He gave it a loving pat and hurled it into the space behind him.

Dolly’s jaw dropped as she watched his Pokémon grow to momentous proportions. What normally would have weighed barely six pounds now smashed to the ground, a crater forming beneath the weight of the behemoth Pokémon. The crowd roared, breaking out into a song-like chant as the Eldegoss cried into the air.

Dolly hardly had time to be afraid as the Pokémon loomed before her. Instead, an eruption of adrenaline burst within her chest and rushed through her veins. She could hardly contain it as she called Jackson back to his Poké Ball. A huge grin broke over her face, her Wishing Star bracelet shining as she hurled Jackson’s massive Poké Ball into the air behind her.

Her grin never wavered as she commanded her monumental Pokémon to blast a geyser of flames into their opponent. She needed no practice from the Wild Area’s glowing red dens, as commanding her Dynamaxed Pokémon came as second-nature as breathing, as natural as the sweat that flung off her forehead, dripped down her back, pooled behind her knees as she ordered him forward in a blaze of heat.

After one final blast, Milo’s Eldegoss called out again, as if in a melody to the chorus of spectators singing around them, and fell to the pitch below. Dolly’s heart pounded in tandem with the final verse of the audience’s song, her veins pulsing in unison as they cheered her name. Life burned in her as Jackson shrunk to his regular size, then rushed up to her side. They both jumped into the air as Milo returned Eldegoss to its Poké Ball.

Victory.

Milo gave her a smile and a nod from across the pitch as he made his way toward her again. They met in the middle, the cheers from the crowd still surrounding her like sparkling, glittering confetti. She wiped her brow and gave a grin as the Rotom camera flitted around her face.

“That must have been a fulfilling battle for you! You have quite the way with Pokémon,” Milo grinned, holding his hat to his chest. “Allow me to present you with your very own Grass Badge.”

As she took the tiny golden Badge the crowd cheered behind her, the sound swelled in her heart, in her body, as she looked around the stadium. The cheers from the crowd satiated her desire for that ‘something’ that she had so hungered for when sitting on her couch and watching Pokémon battles through a screen.

Perhaps one more Gym couldn’t hurt.

Dolly thought that yeah, perhaps just after Hulbury she could head back to Postwick. One more battle with a Gym Leader, one more chance to feel that blazing passion in her bones, then she would call it quits.

Milo guided her off the pitch, still complimenting her battle style. She paused for a second when she saw a child holding a fuzzy Wooloo toy in the stands. She would have to wrangle Hop in with them somehow, but she’d rather get an earful from her mate then risk being run over by those twenty infatuated Wooloo.

“Say, Milo,” she started, wringing her hands together. “I might have promised something to a, uh...large group. You wouldn’t mind letting me borrow... _all_ of your Wooloo for a bit, would you?”

He gave her a quizzical look and nodded suspiciously as they finally left the stadium. 

Milo saw her and Hop off to the next town after letting her borrow his Wooloo barrage. Hop kindly obliged her request, giving each infatuated Wooloo a pat and a kiss on the forehead. One of them passed out, but besides that, no other strange incidents transpired.

She and Hop made their way across the massive brick bridge leading to Hulbury, Hop locking his hands behind his head.

“That’s probably the strangest thing I’ve done in a while,” he said. “I feel like my lips are raw from all that Wooloo love I had to give out thanks to you,”

“Yeah, I owe you one. I didn’t want to get pummeled in my sleep by a stampede of Wooloo...you saw how they acted during my Gym mission,” Dolly laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. 

“Challenger Dolly owing future Champion Hop a favor, huh? That is a tempting offer,” he grinned. “Perhaps I can mull it over through a Pokémon battle? We’ve both got our Grass Badges now,”

Dolly grinned as well, pausing as he turned in front of her. He already had his Poké Ball out, tossing it up into the air. 

“Something tells me you won’t take no for an answer,” she said, already reaching into her bag as well. “I know just the Pokémon for this,”

She tossed out Posey’s ball as Hop tossed out his Wooloo. Her Eevee hopped back and forth, a determined grin on her face as she locked eyes with the Wooloo. When she looked up to Hop tossing the Poké Ball, suddenly she began to cower. Her tail shot between her hind legs.

“Posey?” Dolly asked, watching the scene unfold as her Eevee slowly backed away from Wooloo and Hop.

Suddenly Posey shook her head and scuttled back to her Trainer. Dolly knelt as Posey jumped into her arms, shaking. 

“I can’t, I can’t do it,” she whimpered into the fuzz on Dolly’s jacket. “I’m not strong enough, I’m not good at battling, I’ll just make you lose,”

“What are you talking about? I thought you liked battling?” Dolly asked, stroking the fur on Posey's head.

“Not against Trainers,” she whispered, quickly glancing back to Hop. “Just send out someone else…”

“Are you sure?” Dolly asked, motioning to Hop to pause. “You’ve been doing great so far, you have one of the highest levels on the team,” 

“I’ve never battled a Trainer before... What if I lose? I’m scared, Dolly,”

“Well, I won’t make you battle, even though I know you can win.” she said, letting out a melancholy sigh. Then, she looked back and forth suspiciously, and leaned in to whisper into Posey’s ear. “And a Wingull told me that this Wooloo is only level two,”

“He is not,” Posey said as a smile inched onto her face.

Dolly shrugged. After a moment she pat Posey on the head again.

“I won’t make you battle, Posey, but something I’ve learned recently is that if you don’t sometimes do the things that terrify you, you won’t ever grow.”

Dolly stood again, reaching into her pocket for Posey’s Poké Ball. She held it out, raising an eyebrow. Her Eevee glanced from the ball, to her Trainer, to Hop across the way. A new light seemed to dawn in her eyes as her Trainer smiled at her. Posey took in a breath.

“Alright, I’ll try,”

Dolly grinned, clenching her fists.

“That’s all I ask, Posey, I know you can do it!”

Her Eevee turned, setting her paws sturdily into the brick and dirt beneath. A new fire seemed to swirl about her, and Dolly gave Hop a thumbs up to continue their battle.

Dolly couldn’t help but let out a laugh as Posey performed just as she knew she could - gracefully, powerfully, and before they knew it, Hop’s last Pokémon hit the ground.

“We both got ourselves the same Grass Badge, so how come you’re so much stronger?!” Hop huffed, scratching his head.

Dolly grinned as Posey ran back to her. 

“I did it Dolly, I did it! I even leveled up, too!”

Dolly smiled and hugged her Eevee.

“I told you could! I’m so proud of you, Posey!” she smiled into her Eevee’s fur.

“And I can get even stronger, I know it! When can I evolve, Dolly? What should I be when I grow up? A Flareon? Umbreon? Vaporeon, maybe? We don’t have any Water-types, that would be so cool!”

Hop smiled too as he watched the two of them. He stepped over to the pair, and Posey let him pat her on the head as well.

“You’ve gotten strong, Dolls. Seems I’ve got to train even harder from now on,”

They fell into step again as they continued across the bridge to Hulbury.

“I’ve never seen you like this before,” Hop said from beside her. 

She glanced up at him, and his brow was furrowed slightly. Suddenly, he stopped and looked at her.

“It’s like you have a whole new life in you.”

“Yeah, it...it feels good,” she said, more to herself than to her friend. She looked down to her hands, then to her Eevee who was gazing up at her with so much love. She could feel her heart swell.

“I’m glad you’re doing the Gym Challenge with me,” he said, brow still furrowed. “Even just seeing you talk to your Eevee like that before we battled...it’s starting to make sense why Lee wanted to endorse you too. It’s like that fire in you ignited the fire in Posey as well.”

“Oh, well, that was nothing...she just needed some encouragement is all…” Dolly said, her face flushing pink.

“Look at you, being all modest,” Hop laughed quietly.

He paused again as his eyes flit about her face. Her cheeks grew warmer as she kicked at the dirt. She tried to mumble out a retort, but the way he was looking at her was pretty distracting.

“What?” she grumbled, shoving her hands in her pockets. Why did he keep looking at her like that? Ever since Motostoke his gaze always seemed to linger just a second too long.

“Just thinking about how I’ll finally beat you after I get my Water Badge,” he said.

When Dolly raised an eyebrow at him, he finally broke into a grin. She rolled her eyes and waved goodbye to Hop as he rushed to Hulbury, desperate to take on Nessa before she did. She and Posey continued walking along the bridge, taking in the view of the Wild Area.

Wingulls flew about the bridge, coasting through the air the closer she walked to Hulbury. Even though it hadn’t been incredibly long since she began this trek, she was surprised at how easy battling came back to her. That, and even how easily communicating with her Pokémon had become. Sure, there were times that Jackson acted even more like a moody teenager since evolving, or Hudson would only shrug instead of answering a question, but thinking back to her battle alongside Posey really made her wonder. At the time it was just to encourage Posey to try, try, try again, but perhaps what she said impacted her more than she thought. It had been such a rush of commotion and emotion up until now, she never really took the time to fully think that yes, she was indeed terrified.

She was terrified of losing another Pokémon, another friend. She was terrified of broadcasting her introverted self across the nation. She was terrified the most, though, of having to return to boredom. She had been doing the things that terrified her, and she had already noticed growth within her. Those thoughts took a back seat as she finally emerged from the Hulbury tunnel, a soft gasp escaping her lips.

Dolly looked about the port town, a smile gracing her face as the salty air breezed over her. It had been a long time since she smelled the ocean, and this was a pleasant surprise. Fishers chatted and laughed as their fishing poles swung behind them, and joggers gave polite waves as they trekked through the port town. The gray cobblestone road tied the charming town together, weaving in front of bold-colored houses and connecting them, the downtown, and the market, all to the sparkling sea at the edge of town.

She continued down the main road, looking about for the next Gym and she caught the tail end of a conversation from three people standing in the road. She recognized one as Bede, especially when he shot that now-familiar glare at her. When she approached, the man in the group called out to her, and Bede said his farewell and sauntered off into Hulbury.

The two other people turned, one a tall, elegant blonde woman with icy blue eyes. Dolly had seen this woman before - she was a League staff member, one of the higher-ups, too. If Dolly remembered correctly, her name was Oleana. She had a glamorous name to go with gorgeous hair, face, and style.

The other was a tubby, middle-aged man who had a much warmer ambiance about him. As soon as he lifted his sunglasses and smiled, Dolly felt her heart quicken again as she was met with striking green eyes. 

Oh boy.

Rose approached her again as he had in the Motostoke atrium, grasping her hand in his.

Ooh boy.

“Ah, Dolly, was it? So nice to see you again. We were just talking about you,”

Dolly’s eyes widened. Her? Why? Did she have something in her teeth when they last talked? Was he talking about how the guiding light of the Wishing Stars led them to each other? That their meeting was fated by the cosmos? Or did they watch those Wooloo obliterate Milo’s entire stadium thanks to her? Although she was undefeated thus far, that didn’t mean she had a ton of pocket change for stadium renovations.

He released her hand and placed his in the pockets of his blue polka-dot shorts. Even in casual summer wear he was enrapturing. 

“I must admit I’m curious as to Leon’s reasons for endorsing you,” Rose said. Suddenly his eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands together. “Ah! I just had a brilliant idea, as I tend to do. You’re going to face Gym Leader Nessa soon, yes? If you get a Gym Badge from her, I’ll hold a celebration. I’d like to get to know you a little better, after all.”

It took every fiber of her being to not fall over from shock and ecstasy at his comment. And that warm smile. He wanted to get to know her? A dinner date with just the two of them? With him and those green eyes gazing at her so captivatingly? She might just die right here. She probably still had mud in her hair... He was truly a gentleman of the highest caliber. This Curse could take a backseat if all she needed to do was get one more Badge. One more, a fancy dinner with the one and only Mr. Rose, and then she’d go home. Or maybe he’d whisk her away to some fancy after party or something? _Then_ she would go home.

Oleana whispered into the Chairman’s ear, breaking their trance, and Rose smiled at Dolly again.

“Please, do your best for the sake of Galar’s future,” he said, and turned into Hulbury. Dolly didn’t realize her mouth was hanging open until Oleana turned to her, the warmth of the air evaporating immediately. 

“The chairman will be heading to this town’s seafood restaurant. Win the Gym Badge and meet him there at once. Do not keep him waiting.”

This lady didn’t have to tell her twice. Dolly walked as elegantly as she could past the windows of the seafood restaurant, then stumbled into a sprint. Dolly raced her way through Hulbury, to the Gym, to a lighthouse, through a conversation with Nessa, into the Gym, through the Gym, and exited with a Water Badge. She’d let her Yamper be the flower girl at her wedding as thanks for destroying Nessa’s Pokémon. The Gym Leader barely had time to congratulate her before Dolly was rushing back off the pitch.

At first Dolly was frustrated by Nessa’s Gym soaking her to the bone, but at least now she was squeaky clean. Couldn’t go on a date with the chairman while looking like a greasy Grimer. Would he offer her another charming smile? A bouquet of aptly named roses? Guide her by the hand and pull her chair out for her? Offer her a selection of fine wines? She wasn’t old enough to drink yet though, maybe he’d buy her a chocolate milk instead. Maybe this place had those cool swirly straws, too.

She pushed open the double doors to the restaurant, flipping her hair back and puffing out her chest - girls did that, right? She glanced around for Rose, finding him in his inconspicuous bright blue shorts. There were two women standing beside him and Dolly’s stance deflated. So, it _wasn’t_ just the two of them? Well, maybe it was a double date or something. Or they both worked for him, maybe? That tall one was Oleana, and that other one...was that Sonia? As she approached, Rose offered her another charming smile.

“You’ve arrived Dolly, welcome. Let’s celebrate your recent victory, shall we?”

Sonia looked at her and grinned, eyebrows raised.

“Oh, were you invited too? It’s good to see you again, congratulations on blowing through that Gym like it was nothing!”

They all took their seats, Sonia nattering on about her Gym performance, then her and Rose started talking about Dynamaxing or her gran or something. Dolly wished she would buzz off, couldn’t she feel the chemistry between her and Rose? Ugh. So much for their romantic date. This place didn’t have swirly straws, either.

Before she knew it, Oleana had pulled Rose away from her yet again, so it was just her and Sonia at the table. Dolly plopped her head on her fist with a huff as she watched Rose walk away.

“Congrats on beating Nessa,” Sonia grinned. “You blew right through it! She and I are good friends, and she can get pretty competitive. I’m sure she wasn’t happy about how fast you beat her.”

Dolly tore her eyes away as the door closed behind Rose and Oleana. That guiding light of the Wishing Stars was not doing a very good job of keeping her and Rose together.

“What? Oh, yeah, I guess so.”

“You really are a top-notch Trainer, Dolly. I can see why Leon endorsed you too,” Sonia said. “With how successful you’ve been so far, maybe parts of the Curse no longer affect you.”

Dolly slurped at the rest of her chocolate milk. This place probably didn’t do refills... 

“I dunno, but I’m probably not going to stick around to find out,” Dolly sighed. “I actually might be off to Postwick after this, I’m not sure I want to keep going with the Gym Challenge.”

Sonia’s mouth hung open.

“What are you talking about? You’ve been doing great! You beat Milo and Nessa with ease, you can’t stop now!”

Dolly shrugged. She was having a lot of fun with her Pokémon. Was it a worthy risk, though? She was already one Gym beyond what she said she’d do in the first place.

She and Sonia pushed out of the restaurant and into Hulbury as the sun started to set. Dolly grumbled when she looked over the startling pinks and oranges that reflected over the water - that would have literally been the _perfect_ atmosphere for the end of her and Rose’s date and instead she was here with Sonia talking about her Nuzlocke Curse. 

Dolly waved goodbye to Sonia and started through the town again. Sonia said that perhaps parts of her Curse weren’t affecting her anymore, but Dolly wasn’t so sure. Everything corresponded to the last time she was with Pokémon: She could still talk to Pokémon, only catch one per route, and she had nicknamed them all - but she would have done that anyway. There was that final aspect of this Curse, but that wasn’t one she wanted to test. 

She took a breath. Perhaps she could stop by that little market, get a souvenir for her mum, then really head home. As she trekked down the path she ran into Hop, who was jogging through Hulbury.

“Hey mate! I saw your match with Nessa, I’ve never seen you so determined!” he grinned, falling into step with her. “You’ve got both the Grass and the Water Badge by now, right?”

She nodded.

“Just like me. In that case, we’re both headed for Motostoke and the Fire Gym Leader, Kabu! I hear he’s actually holed up in Galar Mine No. 2, undergoing some special training. Let’s head there and see what all the fuss is about!”

Something about the way he was grinning at her like that made it hard to spit out she was actually heading home. She couldn’t stand the thought of being the one to make his smile deflate, so she only sighed and followed along behind him. She did have to get back to Motostoke first anyway, so may as well fake it until they got there, then head on home. 

She watched as the sun sank below the horizon. Only a little bit longer, then she wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore - just sit comfortably in her house with her mum until...well. Until something else. She could figure out the rest of her life later.

Hop charged forward into the mine, stating he’d catch her back in Motostoke. She rolled her eyes - so much for finding Kabu together. 

As Dolly stepped into the mine herself, she couldn’t help but smile. She had to admit, this mine was much more beautiful than the last. Blue, purple, and red stones glittered on the walls, cascading a purplish glow over everything, even the ponds in the mine. The dark purple sand sat like silk on the floor, glittering in the light of the gemstones. She meandered through, managed to catch a Noibat named Fay, and continued down the path - she was just so cute, one more couldn’t hurt, right? And she was a _Dragon-type._ They could fit eight Pokmeon in their living room if her mum moved some furniture around. A lot of the mine started to look the same, and Dolly could have sworn she had seen this pond before.

“Back at the beginning?” she huffed, shoulders slumping. She wondered if it would be faster just to go all the way around through Turffield again to get to Motostoke than maneuvering through this stupid mine. She heard footsteps behind her.

“You again.” 

She turned and was face to face with a tall, white-haired trainer. She took a startled step backwards.

“I’d feel sorry for my Pokémon if I made them take part in a battle against low-level opponents. I’m not in the mood to deal with weaklings right now,”

Dolly looked around sarcastically.

“You’re not talking about me, right Bidet? Seeing as I absolutely annihilated you last time we saw each other?”

“It’s _Bede_ , not- whatever.” Bede huffed and stepped so he was only a foot away from her, standing at his full height. “Then again, I suppose it’s a form of mercy to crush weak opponents early on. If you’re under the misguided impression that you’re stronger than me, then surely you would be up for a Pokémon battle.”

“What, do you have a fetish for losing against cute girls in mines?" she sneered, meeting his gaze. "Gross, but I can’t just stand there letting you spew lies like that.”

“Quite the mouth on this one. It’s utterly inconceivable that I, the Challenger chosen by the chairman, will lose!”

She was thrown into battle and immediately tossed out Posey. Although Sap may have been better for a type advantage, another burst of confidence for Posey would do her well. 

Posey battled through almost all of Bede’s Pokémon, every once in a while looking back to Dolly for a nod of encouragement. Once Bede tossed out his final Pokémon, Dolly noticed Posey’s legs starting to shake again.

“Alright Posey, that’s enough, let’s send out someone else,” Dolly called, her brow furrowing. Although Posey was handling his Pokémon well, she didn’t want to push her too far for no reason. Sap could handle these Psychic-types well enough. Bede smirked, folding his arms. 

“What, your pathetic Eevee can’t handle it, huh? She’s too scared? Too weak? Just like her Trainer?”

Posey quaked where she stood and let out a yelp.

“No!” she called. “Dolly’s not weak, and I’m not either! I’ve grown stronger because of her, and I’m not afraid anymore!”

Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together, standing there and watching her Eevee. She felt a surge of pride well within her for how much growth Posey had gone through in such a short amount of time. 

“I’m tired of hiding, tired of running! If I don’t do the things that terrify me, I’ll never grow!” she said as she looked back to Dolly with a new determination in her eyes. “Because that’s what Dolly’s been doing, and I want to be brave, just like her.”

Dolly felt a knot of pride well in her throat. She nodded.

“Alright, Posey, fine. One last Pokémon, then we’ve beaten this idiot.”

After using a potion to get Posey up to full health, Bede tossed out his Ponyta.

“Posey, use Swift!” 

Stars erupted from around Posey, filling the mine with light. They swirled around the room, then shot straight at the opposing Ponyta. A few ricocheted behind Bede, hitting the walls around them. Small shards of gemstones broke off, falling to the floor. The room sparkled in blues and greens and purples as they fell, like cold Wishing Stars falling to the earth.

“Ponyta, Confusion!” 

Another flash of light erupted around the room. She could feel Posey getting weaker, but Posey was faster than this Ponyta. One good hit, and Bede would be finished in no time.

“Posey, use Swift one last time!”

The Ponyta moved first, and Dolly watched in horror as another flash of brilliant light erupted. Posey’s scream echoed throughout the mine. 

Dolly felt her blood grow cold, her fingers numb.

Her fingers were numb. Her fingers, then her wrists. Her eyes went wide. She hadn’t felt this in a long time. She hadn’t felt her fingers like this since...

No.

The dust trickled through the arena, and the falling gemstones glittered as they clattered to the floor.

No.

They fell like a macabre sunset. The tingling turned to stabbing as it shot up her arms, her shoulders.

_NO._

The sapphires fell like settling dusk.

Her mind shot back to that moment in the forest, with her first Pokémon gasping for breath. 

“Dolly?” she had whispered, the light slowly draining from her eyes. “What’s happening to me?”

Her fingers went numb then, too. It felt the same. She was seven, she was seventeen. She was there in the forest, here in the mine.

“Dolly, why won’t you help me?” she had said.

The smoke settled, Posey’s silhouette in the dirt of the mine floor.

“I’m trying, I’m trying!” Dolly had cried, gripping her close to her chest. “I can’t,” she had cried. Her Pokémon smiled. 

“I still love you,” she had said.

“Critical hit.” Bede smirked.

Posey’s fur still waved in the wind from the outside of the mine, the dirt and remnants of shattered gemstones from the walls still trickling down, grazing over the floor and the cave pond. The flower that always lay tucked behind her ear was crushed under the hoof of Ponyta.

She flashed back again to the forest. Raindrops had started to speckle. Her Pokémon’s small body had tensed, then gone limp, still with the trace of a soft smile. 

“Faline?” she had whispered as her friend’s eyes closed.

“Posey?” she said now, voice barely audible.

No movement.

“Posey?” she asked, louder.

Her Eevee lay there, motionless.

“Posey, get up!” she called again, her hands and arms were trembling as the stabbing grew stronger. “Use Swift, Tackle, anything!”

Her voice echoed throughout the silent caves as the stings crawled into her chest like a thousand spiders, tearing at her heart. Only the echo of her own voice called back to her. Even Bede’s face twitched.

“What’s wrong with you, just use a revive!”

Dolly ran from her spot, disregarding every rule of battle etiquette. She collapsed to the ground, and tenderly reached out for Posey. She willed herself to touch her, to hold Posey in her arms.

She flashed to the forest, holding her first Pokémon. Her mind flashed to how she held her as the rain pricked her skin.

She flashed to the present, gripping Posey to her chest. The specks of dust and dirt pricked at her eyes, her skin.

Bede was whispering now too.

“Is she... dead?”

Dolly’s eyes widened at the reality of the word as she stared up at Bede.

She couldn’t even open her mouth to lie. She couldn’t open her mouth to lie that no, she was only fainted, or no, she was only sleeping. She couldn’t even open her mouth to lie that she didn’t feel the stabbing in her veins, the stabbing in her heart, even as much as she wanted to. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t even open her mouth to lie and say the Eevee that lay in her arms was alive. 

Because she wasn’t.

He froze too, then shook his head.

“You’re a cruel Trainer,” Bede whispered, face laced with horror. “You’re disgusting. I was right, your last win was a fluke. I’m not battling some _thing_ as pathetic as you.”

He returned Ponyta to its Poké Ball and turned, leaving Dolly there on the ground. The only sounds in the cave were his footsteps, and the small taps where her tears hit the ground.

The rest happened in a blur.

She ran to the Pokémon Center only to have the nurse confirm what she already knew. She would have done anything not to have everyone in the building staring at her with shock, confusion, pity. All of them were silent and staring as she stood there frozen, hearing the words she knew, but dreaded all the same.

“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do.”

With a ghostly nod, eyes hollow, Dolly left and returned to Route 4. She completed her errand and walked away, leaving Posey and the haphazard tombstone beneath the tree by the river.


	6. Hubris

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Bella (Yamper), Sap (Charjabug), Hudson (Mudbray), Fay (Noibat)

**Chapter 6 - Hubris**

Dolly’s team remained at five.

The next few days went by in a haze. No one really knew what to say. Her teammates all reacted differently: some cried, some yelled at her, some only nodded in silence. She wasn’t sure which she hated most; Lacey unable to contain her grief as her small body racked with sobs, the screams tearing at her from Jackson’s harsh and honest words, or the stoic silence from Hudson as she watched him retreat further and further within himself.

Fay, the Noibat who joined in Galar Mine No. 2, left just as quickly as she came. In her distracted state, Dolly sent her out against a Pokémon she wasn’t sure of the type. Another critical hit, and the same scene repeated itself.

Rush to the Pokémon Center again.

The nurse shakes her head and says “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do,” again.

Looks of fear, suspicion, fury, from the people in the Pokémon Center again.

And a second tombstone beside the first.

Dolly sat on the pier of Hulbury, kicking her legs over the side as the lighthouse watched over her. She tossed tiny pebbles into the water and heaved out a sigh. 

She had already cycled through everything she could have done, should have done, to not be sitting on the pier alone. She should have quit after the second Gym. She should have quit after the first. She should have never gotten on the train, should have never accepted any starting Pokémon. She should have never gotten off her couch that day. She didn’t feel anything anymore, physically or mentally. The numbness in her arms and chest had yet to dissipate, magnified by the two deaths so close together. 

Her eyes were dry, hollow, as if she had run out of tears altogether. Her body was dried up, withered, empty.

Idiot, idiot, idiot. She was wasting her time playing dress up, pretending to be a Pokémon Trainer, pretending to be someone normal, someone who could actually do anything. She embarrassed herself by fawning over two successful and passionate men like she was some stupid, starstruck preteen. She was ashamed of her naivety, her audacity, to think that she could actually do this, that she could actually do something with her life. The mediocrity slithered into her skin again, the sludge staining again the parts that were so raw, so beaten. She was probably just hallucinating in the Slumbering Weald. She was no shield, she bore no defense for her Pokémon. The Curse couldn’t be broken, and she would live with it forever - doomed to either mediocrity, or risking the lives of others. Doomed to be bored or to be selfish. 

She sighed again, resting her chin on her hands and she tossed the last pebble into the water.

Even if the vision was a hallucination, she couldn’t deny the fire that blazed within her every time she battled. She couldn’t deny the life she felt well within her every time she tossed out a Poké Ball or issued a command. That was the most real thing she had ever known. But that didn’t matter - what was her wanting to chase a selfish desire compared to the lives of friends? The guilt tore at her insides. She’d been sitting like beige wallpaper for years, and soon she would return.

She reached to pick up another pebble. She felt a shudder from her bag and Jackson appeared beside her. He took a seat next to her, dangling his legs over the pier as well.

They sat in silence as the sun shone over them, casting sparkles onto the water. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him after their screaming match. He had screamed at her, and she had screamed back. But he was right, she should have warned them all. She didn’t tell any of them they could die.

She felt a weight on her thigh. Jackson had laid his paw on her leg, still overlooking the sea. After a moment, she lay her hand over his.

They sat like that for a while, still neither saying a word, but speaking volumes. Dolly let out a sigh, and Jackson did the same. 

So she told them. She told them all. She used Posey and Fay as examples of what could happen to them. Some of her Pokémon left immediately - the Bunnelby she caught was gone, Bella her Yamper was gone, and only four stayed. 

“You can’t sit here forever, you know,” came a voice from behind them.

Trainer and Pokémon turned to see Sonia standing behind them, arms crossed.

“The world still turns, Dolly.”

She slung her legs over the side of the pier as well, taking a seat on the other side of Dolly. She rested her head on her arms on the railing in front of them.

“That’s probably the hardest lesson I’ve ever had to learn. That someday, somebody you love will die, and everything else will seem irrelevant. Nothing matters anymore.”

They watched Wingulls flap over the sea.

“And yet,” she continued. “The earth still moves. People continue about their day, normal as ever, while your life has changed forever.”

Jackson crawled on Dolly’s lap, the trio still gazing at the sea.

“I lost both of my parents a few years ago,” Sonia continued. Dolly finally looked at her. “That’s when I started living with my gran instead. When that happened, nothing else mattered. I didn’t care about anything for a long time, and even until this day it’s still hard sometimes. I did nothing, I felt nothing. But, I allowed myself to grieve. Then, I allowed myself to move on. Because that’s when someone told me what I’m telling you; that the world still turns.”

Sonia turned her head and her eyes peered into Dolly’s.

“I don’t know what you’re fighting for, Dolly. I don’t know why you started this journey, and you don’t have to tell me. But, what I do know is that there’s something. There’s something within you that burns brighter than anything I’ve seen in a Gym Challenger in a long time. You wouldn’t be able to battle like that if there wasn’t. The control, the grace, and the passion you have when you work with your Pokémon is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Rose and Leon said so too,” she said as she gazed again over the sea.

Dolly looked down to Jackson sitting in her lap. She stroked her hand through his fur.

“One day I realized something,” Sonia continued. “My father and mother will never be coming back in a way I was used to, but I knew that they wouldn’t want me sitting around forever feeling sorry for myself. Allow yourself time, yes, but don’t forget why you started out in the first place. Your friend wouldn’t want you sitting here like a husk, not having showered or eaten in days, because of her. What do you think she would have wanted for you? What they would have wanted for you? What would she have said?”

Dolly continued looking out over the sea.

Her mind flashed to Posey, to Fay, to her Faline in the forest.

“I still love you,” Dolly whispered.

Sonia nodded, and Dolly willed herself to speak again.

“That I should continue on. Maybe even... break this Curse.”

“Right, and to have fun and enjoy life while doing it," Sonia smiled from beside her. "We’re learning, Dolly. We’re learning more about this Curse day by day. Perhaps one day, we’ll find out about that thing in the Slumbering Weald. Perhaps we’ll find out that what it said was true - that you can overcome this Curse, and that maybe you really are the Shield of Galar.”

Sonia stood and brushed off her legs. She stood for a moment, as if saying a silent prayer, and left Dolly and Jackson to sit together gazing at the sea. They sat there, time unimportant, as the port town behind them bustled and the sun began to set. It wasn’t until Jackson’s stomach grumbled that they both jerked back to life. Dolly let out half a laugh and scratched between his ears.

“Probably about time we get going,” she uttered, voice hoarse.

He nodded, stood from her lap and stretched, his back cracking as he reached to the sky. She stood as well, dusting off her leggings and skirt. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, hands greasy from the residue it left.

It was time to head home.

All the way home.

She was right from the beginning, should have left it at one Gym and quit. What Sonia said was kind, but it was too late. She already decided: Back to her house and her couch and her beige wallpaper.

She didn’t want to decide between the routes. Should she travel past the graves of her Pokémon or past the mine that sent them there? Jackson said they should go back past the graves, and perhaps they could lay some flowers down.

Jackson walked beside her the entire time, a silent support as they made their way past Turffield, past Route 4, past the first mine, past Route 3, and into the Budew Drop Inn. A shower and sleep, then she’d finish her trek home.

As she opened the doors to the Budew Drop Inn, someone was walking out. 

“Oh, heya Dolly,”

It was Marnie, smiling softly at her.

“Out givin’ it your all, even this late, huh? You okay?” she asked, taking in the bags under Dolly’s eyes and her unkempt clothes.

“I’m dropping out of the Gym Challenge,” she sighed, unable to filter her words to the soft and unassuming girl before her.

Marnie’s brow furrowed, and she pulled Dolly aside. The dusk cooled her skin, breezing through Marnie’s pigtails as they stood by the front of the Inn. Dolly picked at her fingers as she watched a couple kids playing hopscotch with their Pokémon.

“What’re you talking about, dropping out?” she asked, setting her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. “We only just started?”

Dolly shrugged again, looking to the ground. Her loafers were caked in mud and dust, as were her ankles. Her bangs were clumped from grease, and she was sure her entire body had a layer of grime on it. She looked like a right mess, just to match how she felt inside.

“How ‘bout a Pokémon battle? Maybe that’ll change your mind?” Marnie asked, smiling sweetly. “After watching you on the telly for your matches with Milo and Nessa, I’ve been itching to have a chance at you. None of the other Challengers battle in the way you do,”

“I don’t know, Marnie,” she said with a sigh. “I can’t…”

“Can’t what? Wait to lose?” Marnie smiled, twirling back and forth.

Dolly let out a smile despite herself. Perhaps Sonia was right, perhaps she did need to move on. She still planned to head back to Postwick, but she didn’t want her last battle against a Trainer to be Bede. She’d much rather win against sweet Marnie, then quit Pokémon forever. She nodded.

“Fine. One more, then I’m done.”

Marnie smiled again and clenched her fists.

“Wicked. And right here’s the perfect spot,” she said as she led them further from the Inn entrance until they were standing in the plaza before it.

A few pedestrians noticed the two Challengers and took their seats to watch the battle. Dolly fished her four Poké Balls out of her bag, heaving out another breath. One more battle, then she was done. Back to Postwick, back to her home, back to her couch, and she’d figure out something else to do with her life.

That thought contradicted everything she felt the second she threw her Poké Ball. She hadn’t battled anything in days, and she didn’t realize what effect it was having on her. Immediately it was like her heart beat again, her eyes opened again, and the wind started to blow again. Marnie must have sensed it too, as she called across the bricks between them.

“Let’s see what kind of Trainers Postwick can spit out, Challenger Dolly!”

Dolly ordered her Pokémon forward, her commands flawlessly executed as if they had never stopped. Marnie grinned the entire time during their battle, even as her Pokémon fell one by one. That friendly competition that burned between them ever since they first met roared to life. 

Dolly tossed out Lacey. She was due to evolve any minute, and the experience from this battle was exactly what she needed. If she evolved, Dolly was sure Lacey would fit well with the Dubwool in Postwick.

Lacey appeared before her, eyes blazing in determination. She took her stance sturdily, her faithful partner ready for instruction. Dolly could feel her blood pumping again as the wind blew against her, the cheers from their makeshift crowd wafting through the air. It was like she gained power the louder they chanted her name. She stood taller, readier, determined to face life again as the sludge of mediocrity slowly began to slide.

Her Wooloo and Marnie’s Morpeko scattered back and forth across the bricks, dodging and attacking, biting and tackling, until Lacey emerged victorious. Dolly wiped the sweat from her brow as Morpeko hit the ground. 

“Wow, Dolly, pretty impressive for someone from a small country town,” Marnie smiled from across the way.

"And the same to you,” Dolly said with a nod.

“But I’m not finished yet,” Marnie grinned, tossing out her final Poké Ball.

A Croagunk appeared before them, grinning at Lacey devilishly. Lacey reared back, ready again for her Trainer’s command. The Pokemon wove back and forth again across the bricks of Motostoke, and Lacey still had the upper hand.

“Croagunk, use Poison Jab!”

The Croagunk sprinted forward, the ends of its arms glowing purple. It reached Lacey and stabbed its fingers into her heart.

Again.

Again.

And again.

“Stop!” Marnie yelled, rushing up to her Croagunk. “Croagunk that’s too much!”

It only laughed as Lacey hit the ground. Then, it reared forward and Marnie had to launch herself on top of her Pokémon.

Dolly rushed forward too, dreading the next few seconds. She collapsed to the ground, setting Lacey’s head in her lap. She scrambled into her bag, tearing through clothing and Poké Balls to get to her potions. No potions.

“Miss Dolly?” Lacey whispered. “Why do I feel like this? My veins hurt…”

Poison heal, poison heal. 

Dolly’s fingers started to tingle.

No poison heal.

Marnie was struggling to hold back her Croagunk, it’s crazed eyes still fixed on Lacey.

“Miss Dolly?” Lacey whispered again as her eyes started to close.

“Yeah,” she responded, eyes wide, still tearing through her things. Her fingers were numb, and it was getting harder to feel around her bag.

Pecha berry, Pecha berry.

“I’m real glad I got to be your Pokémon,” she smiled.

No Pecha berry.

Dolly's head whipped around, eyes frantically searching for the glowing red beacon of the Pokémon Center.

“I love you,” Lacey smiled. “And thank you for the adventure.”

“This isn’t goodbye,” Dolly tried to smile, only letting out a grimace. “This can’t be, it can’t be, Lacey,”

Lacey closed her eyes and let out her final breath.

The tingling in Dolly’s fingers erupted yet again. The stabbing spread through her fingers, her arms, and shot into her chest.

She sat, clutching Lacey in her arms as the tears began to fall again. She winced as she felt the stabbing in her heart.

Number three.

So soon.

So close to the others.

She was a monster.

She stood, returned Lacey to her old Poké Ball, and ran. 

Pushed through the crowd.

Pokémon Center.

Nothing they could do.

She ran again, hair whipping her face, grease and tears lining her cheeks.

Get out, get out, get out.

Through the dark.

Down the lift.

Across the bricks.

Pushing, sprinting as fast as she could.

Down the steps.

Her foot caught on the stone, and Dolly tumbled.

Tumbled down the last few steps, landing into the dirt of the Wild Area.

And there she lay, dirty, pathetic, and sobbing at the base of the steps of Motostoke City.

The dust settled around her as she hugged her arms around herself, hiding her face in her jacket. Unprepared. Irresponsible. It was all her fault. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. Monster. Monster. Monster.

She sobbed in the dirt, pitifully, mournfully, alone.

How could Lacey love her. How could anyone love such an idiot, such a monster. She was not worthy of friendship, she was not worthy of love.

One by one flashes erupted around her. She felt a paw take Lacey’s Poké Ball from her hand as her Charjabug crawled up to her torso, wiggling herself into Dolly’s jacket. Hudson lay on her other side, resting his chin on her trembling shoulder. Through the shakes of her sobs, she pet her Mudbray on the nose and curled her arms around Sap.

After a time Jackson returned, paws caked in dirt, and Lacey’s old Poké Ball was nowhere to be found.

Someone approached them as Dolly lay still on the ground, her cries growing softer as she clutched Sap to her chest. Hudson reared, blocking the approaching man from getting any closer to Dolly. Jackson bore sharp teeth and took a flaming stomp forward. The man stood back and held his hands up.

“Hey, sorry, sorry. I don’t mean any trouble, but lady, you can’t lay here, they’ve got homeless shelters in Motostoke if you go back up the steps.”

Dolly flicked her eyes up, swallowed her sob, and nodded, slowly rising from the ground.

“Sorry,” she muttered, still holding onto Sap.

She slowly trudged away from Motostoke, using every ounce of energy she had left just to lift her feet. Her team followed along behind her until she returned them all to their Poké Balls, knowing she couldn’t stand to risk losing another to fate. Jackson refused, however, and stood stubbornly on the final stair to Motostoke.

“Where are we going? The next Gym is in Motostoke, isn’t it?” Jackson finally asked as Dolly continued onto the grass.

“I’m going home.”

Jackson watched her back as she trudged further off. He squinted his eyes, then ran beside her again.

“What do you mean, you’re going home?”

“Not sure how to make that more clear,”

“We can’t stop now!” he protested, pulling at her sleeve. “We were doing so well!”

She whirled around to her Raboot.

“Doing well? What are you talking about? We just lost three team members within days of each other,” she retorted, eyes wide. “If that’s doing well I don’t want to know what doing poorly is.”

She continued, walking into the darkness of the Wild Area.

“Yeah, but what about the rest of us?” he called at her retreating back. “Don’t we matter too?”

She paused, turned, and tossed out her other two Pokémon. Jackson, Sap, Hudson - the only three remaining.

“You’re all free to go,” she said.

They looked at her, brows furrowed. She waved at them with her hands, shooing them off.

“Go on,” she huffed. “You can all leave, I’m not your Trainer anymore.”

They all stood, staring at her, taking in her words.

“You’re all smart Pokémon, you can find your way back. Can’t die if I’m not your Trainer.”

None of them moved.

“I said _leave!_ ” she called, voice raising. “Go on, scram! Back to your lives, back where you’re safe and away from a freak like me.”

Her voice cracked at the end of her sentence and her shoulders slumped as they silently watched her. 

“...Don’t you understand?”

The Wild Area was quiet. Only the rustling of grass whispered in the air as Dolly blinked back the sting in her eyes, but then, the silence was broken when Dolly stomped forward. 

“If you stay with me, you’ll die!" she shouted. "You saw what happened to Posey, to Fay, to Lacey just now! That’ll happen to you if you stay with me!”

None of her three Pokémon even flinched. They only gazed up at her, big eyes taking in the tears falling from their Trainer. Then, Jackson sat. And Sap sat. And Hudson sat. They all nonchalantly sat in the dirt, unmoving, unwavering, still gazing up at her.

“I’m a death sentence. I’m a monster.”

Her breath came out in ragged heaves as she watched her Charjabug wriggle towards her, little sparks flitting in the air. Dolly let out a whimper as Sap pawed at her, trying to climb up her leg. She let out another sob as she plopped to the dirt with a _thwump_ , opening her arms as Sap clambered into her lap.

Jackson and Hudson plodded over to her as well, climbing into Dolly’s lap. She cried into Jackson’s fur as he held onto her, the four of them making an odd picture sitting there in the dirt of the Wild Area. Hudson smeared the tears off her cheek with his nose.

“We’re not going anywhere.”

“We’re a team now, a family, whether you like it or not,” Jackson said, holding her face in his paws. Her bottom lip quivered as she looked to her three remaining team members.

“You gave us a chance to leave, and we chose not to,” her Mudbray continued. “You’ve given us all the information you could, described every scenario, and it’s up to us to decide. And this is our decision.”

Sap squeaked in agreement, a shock of electricity coursing through Dolly’s fingers as she pet her Charjabug.

“And we want you to respect us enough to continue this Gym Challenge,” Hudson finished, resting his hoof on her knee.

“Yeah, Dolly, when you said to go home, I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.” Jackson said, still gazing into Dolly’s eyes. “So going home means staying with you.”

Dolly let out another sob as she clutched her Pokémon close to her heart. The moon cast a glow over them, enveloping them in soft light as fireflies flit about the Wild Area. They stayed there for a while, holding each other as Dolly’s sobs softened, as her breathing turned from cracked huffs to a soft sigh.

“I agree with Jackson,” Hudson said after a while. “You saw how I was when you first caught me: bored, meandering, looking for something to do. When you came along with that dirty, smiling, vagabond group of yours, it’s like I finally had something to fight for... To fight alongside.”

Dolly looked to her Mudbray, who was gazing into the night sky.

“Fighting with you has given me purpose, Dolly, and I don’t want to go back to the life I was living.”

Dolly patted Hudson’s nose and scratched behind his ear. His words resonated in her heart. She didn’t want to go back to the life she was living either. She didn’t want to sit and ignore the throbbing in her chest every time she even glanced at a Pokémon. She didn’t want to have finally found her passion, her calling, only to toss it to the side and bury it under the dirt.

But at what cost? Risking the life of another Pokémon? To bury them under the dirt instead?

“There’s gotta be a way to break this Nuzlocke Curse,” Jackson pondered, scratching his chin with his paw. “So just do that and we can battle together forever!”

“That orange hair lady said something about a book, right?" Hudson asked. "So there’s got to be other people who know about it. If we learn about it, if we’re all more careful, get stronger, and break that Curse, then we won’t lose anyone else ever again. Problem solved.”

Sap squeaked in agreement, and Jackson hopped off her lap and pumped his fists.

“Well no use sitting around here picking our butts! Trust your Pokémon, Dolly, because I know the next step to figuring this out!” he grinned, turning towards Motostoke. “It rhymes with ‘Flabu’s Snire-type Gym,’ and I’m sure my Ground-type mate here is ready to rumble."

Hudson nodded in agreement as she looked to her rag-tag team. She let out a sigh. 

Trust in your Pokémon. Overcome the Curse. That’s what that voice in the Slumbering Weald said, and now was a good a time as any to follow through.

"Alright folks,” she started. “We’re in it for the long haul then, huh?”

Jackson ran up next to her and placed his hands on his hips.

“Yeah! No more messin’ around!” he quipped, puffing out his furry chest.

“We have to train. Hop said Kabu is the first real roadblock in the Gym Challenge, and I’m not risking anything again, so you all better be ready for some serious grinding.”

“Leave it to me,” Hudson nodded, flexing his shoulders. “Whatever you’re fighting for, we’ll fight with you.”

Dolly set her Pokémon on the ground and stood, the moonlight enhancing the new light in her.


	7. A Monster Who Could Talk to Pokémon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you are enjoying these chapters thus far. As we venture forth, I would love to know your thoughts so I can continue providing excellent content. Please feel free to leave a review (on any current or past chapters) with a part you liked, something you thought was funny, and/or some constructive criticism (or any other comment, question, concern, or flying accusation.) It truly is helpful and sooo incredibly motivating. Also, please note that throughout the story, the symbol ~~ insinuates a brief time skip. Thanks again, dear readers :) Now, ONWARD (to this v long chapter). - missusk
> 
> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Sap (Charjabug), Hudson (Mudsdale)

**Chapter 7 - A Monster Who Could Talk to Pokémon**

After a significant spot of training, Hudson’s evolution into a Mudsdale, and a quick ride on his back to test out his new form, the moon was now high in the sky. Dolly's Pokémon were snoozing safely in their Poké Balls, and she was going to make her way back to Motostoke, to Budew Drop Inn for a nap, then face Kabu in the morning... definitely a shower in there as well. Jackson told her she was gross, she told him he was gross, he said she was worse, and then proved it when he pushed her greasy bangs up and they stuck in place. 

Her eyes drooped as she trudged through the Wild Area. She was excited to see that her Pokémon had gained quite a few levels after training so hard, and by the end they were all ready for a good night’s sleep. It was up to her as their dutiful leader to make it back to Motostoke. She had no energy to set up her tent (nor did she want to sleep on the ground) but finding the stairs to Motostoke was proving harder than she thought. Even as she followed the brick wall, it seemed to go on forever - why was there only one bloody entrance? She reached the end of the bricks and let out a huff of frustration...was she even going in the right direction?!

Dolly turned and moved forward again, following the glow of the moon. She rubbed at her shoulder - although their ride on Hudson was fun at the beginning, with the wind whipping through her hair and Jackson clinging onto his mane, Sap tumbled off and so did Dolly in an attempt to catch her. She was never the most graceful or elegant girl, and that much was obvious as Hudson helped her pop her shoulder back into its socket. A cornucopia of bruises and sores littered her skin and she wished she could catch a nice healing Pokémon to help... Or even an Ice-type Pokémon as she rubbed at her sore shoulder.

A large stone pillar loomed over patches of tall grass, and it was as if the small windows and cracks were all peering down at her as she passed. Had she been here before? Her head throbbed as she squinted her eyes, peering around the pillar for any recognizable features. A yawn escaped her mouth, but she froze when red flashed in her periphery. Her head jerked to it as the red glow moved back and forth slowly, and her eyes followed it. It wavered up and down. Up, down, diagonal, circle. It floated to the left, then slowly to the right. Quickly up, quickly down, then it jerked to the side and rushed off.

“Hey, wait!” she called. It whisked toward the pillar, sliding nimbly through one of the cracks in the stone. Had she caught any Pokémon in this section yet? Her goal of Motostoke faded as she scurried through the tall grass, laser focused on the glowing light in front of her.

The grass tickled her ankles as she stepped through it, a strange wind wisping through her hair. The breeze seemed to only touch her as she followed the red glow into the stone den, bracing herself along the cold stones. The light of the moon was casting a bluish glow over the grass outside, but not a trace of it touched the space within the den.

“Where’d you go,” she muttered, feeling along the wall. “Gotta fill up my team again…”

The red glow was the only semblance of light within the den. Not even the moon touched it, and as the red light shuddered the grass and dirt beneath it were bathed in a hellish glow. Her skin started to prickle when the light froze. Then, the hair on her neck stood on end.

Red eyes and toothy grins began to appear in the darkness. A flash of eyes there, shimmering fangs there. More eyes opened throughout the den as a beam of moonlight broke in through the rocks of the stone tower and she could faintly make out a shadow looming before her. Her eyebrows pulled together as she felt strands of her hair floating towards it. Her heart stopped when the glow of the moon framed the gaping maw of a Dusknoir that was floating towards her.

Dolly screamed and stumbled back, fumbling her way through the darkness as the Dusknoir roared, then started speeding towards her. Her fingers felt along the stones, trying to remember how it felt when she first entered. Nothing was familiar, nothing was safe, as she scrambled through the den with the single beam of moonlight as her only guide.

She finally stumbled into the glow of the outside and back into the tall grass beside the pillar. The Dusknoir was quickly gaining ground, not tripped up by the rocks and the tangled grass that caught her shoes so easily. Her hair and her clothes were being sucked back, forced towards the black hole of the Dusknoir’s stomach. It was as if the grass was slithering around her ankles, catching her and catapulting her into the ground. Dolly turned, only able to watch in frozen horror as the Dusknoir floated over her, closing in on her soul.

Then, a puff of pink smoke exploded around them.

“HI- _YAAAAA!_ ”

A battle cry tore through the air as Dolly watched an Oddish roundhouse kick the Dusknoir in the face. The two Pokémon tumbled to the ground, the Dusknoir roaring and the Oddish screaming in... what was that? Was that… was that Spanish?

“¡Tu diablo! ¡Aléjate de esa hermosa niña!” the Oddish cried, upper cutting the Dusknoir with her knee.

Dolly looked on in shocked confusion as the Oddish pummeled the Dusknoir into the ground. The pink smoke was wafting in the area and only the silhouette of the two Pokémon was visible. Suddenly the Oddish turned, blazing eyes boring into Dolly’s through the smoke.

The Oddish sprung up, the smoke surging around her like a slow-motion, rose-colored mushroom cloud. She glinted in the moonlight, then Dolly coughed out a ‘ _phffhloph’_ as the Oddish landed on her stomach.

“You, catch me! Now is your chance!”

“Wha-?”

“Catch me, señorita, it is fate!”

Dolly could only stare incredulously as this Oddish, in all her blazing confidence, climbed over her shoulder, rustled through her bag, snagged a Poké Ball, and shoved it at Dolly. Her leaves rustled as she tottered inches away. Dolly sat up, watching as little bits of glitter flung off the Oddish’s leaves when she flared them.

“I am ready.”

Dolly, still as confused as ever, tossed the Poké Ball at the Oddish. She disappeared in a flash, the Poké Ball rolled, and finally clicked. The wind and moonlight weren’t moving either, watching just as incredulously as Dolly was. She paused, and when nothing else exploded, she finally bent over and picked the Poké Ball up off the ground while still processing the last thirty seconds.

The ball erupted in light and Dolly surged forward to catch her new Oddish from smacking the ground. 

“Beautiful woman,” the Oddish started from her arms, holding Dolly’s face with her leaves so passionately that Dolly’s cheeks squished. “What is your name?”

“Uh, Dwawhlly,”

“Uhdwawlly,” the Oddish sighed, resting a leaf on her forehead. “A beautiful name for a girl who’s eyes glimmer like comets,”

“Oh, uh, thanks, I guess. My name is actually Dolly, though,”

“Dolly,” the Oddish breathed out. “Even better. I am Rosa. You have caught me. Now that we are bosom companions, I must tell you: You must must _must_ help me become a Bellossom. It is my destiny. I can feel it in the moon as I look upon it at night,” 

Rosa swooned again, gazing into the sky. Dolly could almost see the reflection of stars. 

“I cannot even fathom the idea of becoming a Vileplume...You hear it in the name, yes? _Vile_ ,” she spat the word out. “Euch. You must not let this come to be,”

Twinkling glitter wafted around the Oddish and onto Dolly’s arms. Dolly didn’t realize her mouth was hanging open until she breathed one in and coughed.

“I, uh, sure. I’ll have to find a Sun Stone somewhere, but I guess that’ll work,” Dolly said, setting her on the ground.

The wind seemed to billow only around Rosa as she sighed again, fire in her eyes. Her leaves swayed, and Dolly was sure she would have clenched her fists, if she had any. 

“I can see it now, power and beauty swaying as I dance, destroying our opponents with grace and charm! I shall endure becoming a Gloom, as it is a test of my vitality. And, once I overcome this trial, then I will be worthy - no, the _world will be worthy_ \- of my inevitable evolution,” Rosa said as she shook her leaves. “I cannot wait.”

The starlight seemed to shimmer around only the Oddish and Dolly turned around, wondering if she was still hallucinating.

“Now, I saw other Poké Balls in your bag. I must meet my companions,” Rosa said, her voice muffled as she sifted through Dolly’s bag that was still lying on the ground. In a flash her other three Pokémon were out, looking as dazed as Dolly felt.

They stood in a neat line as Rosa looked each up and down. She approached Jackson first with a satisfied hum.

“You, Raboot-”

“It’s Jackson,” he yawned.

“You, Jackson. You are courageous and loyal! You are adamant and trustworthy; I can sense it in your gaze!” 

Jackson’s sleepy smile turned into a grin at the Oddish’s compliment. He nodded and puffed his chest out a bit. Rosa toddled to Sap next, nodding again in approval.

“You, small bug, are reserved, melodic, yet powerful! The air around you is electrifying!” 

Sap shot out little sparks of fireworks at Rosa’s words. The Oddish continued down the line, opened her mouth as she looked at Hudson, then froze.

“Qué hombre…” she whispered. The sparkles reappeared around her leaves as the clouds parted and a path of moonlight rose between the two. Hudson cleared his throat.

“Uh, hello,”

Rosa stepped up to him until they were only an inch apart, paused, then spun around on her heel. 

“What raw power and ripe masculinity…” she muttered. Then, she spun back to him. “You, señor, are captivating. What is your name?”

Hudson peered around him to see if this Oddish was actually talking to someone behind him. When he only saw the Dusknoir still on the ground, he looked at Dolly. She shrugged.

“It’s Hudson…”

“Hudson…” Rosa repeated as she shivered. “Virile. Dominating. Muy fuerte.”

“Hey, what about me? I’m muy fertile too!” Jackson pouted, bouncing up between the two and waving away the glimmering moonlight.

“It’s ‘muy fuerte,’ Jackson, not ‘fertile,’” Dolly corrected, holding back a snicker. He stuck out his bottom lip as she plucked him off the ground and whispered to him. “Let Hudson have some attention, alright?”

“N-no, that’s okay,” Hudson stammered, backing up as Rosa took a few steps towards him, her eyes still blazing. He tumbled onto his hindquarters as she approached him closer. Dolly struggled to hold back a chuckle at the bizarre scene before her: an eight-foot Mudsdale and a one-foot Oddish, both glowing in the only beam of moonlight in the area.

“Alright, Rosa, that’s enough,” Dolly said, scooping Rosa up in her other arm. “I think that’s good enough for a first impression,”

Hudson heaved out the breath he was holding.

“You are all wonderful,” Rosa beamed. “I will help bring this team to victory. Where are you venturing?”

“Trying to get to Motostoke,” Dolly yawned.

“You are going the wrong way. Come, follow me, I will be your guide.”

Dolly yawned again in response, following the trail of glitter from the swaying leaves of her new partner.

~~

Dolly laid her head against the tiling in the shower, the hot water running over her body. She sighed as the dirt and grime gurgled into the drain, days of filth and dirty tears finally being rinsed off her frame. She used the entire bottle of shampoo the Inn provided, tugging it through the knots tangled throughout her long hair.

What her Pokémon said...was it true? That they wanted to stay with her? Rosa said she wanted to accompany Dolly, even when she told her about the risk when they arrived at the Inn. The Oddish said it was ‘only natural that her journey to becoming a Bellossom would be riddled with peril.’ Dolly sighed again as she scratched at her scalp, fingering out the sticks and sand embedded into her skin. She supposed they all had a few opportunities to leave - really, they could run away at any time they were out of their Poké Ball. Were they too scared to leave? Were they lying to her because they were scared she would hurt them?

She heard a bang from the wall and an eruption of laughter. She rolled her eyes, wondering when they would get past that stupid game of headbutting Jackson into things. It’s not like she could afford to replace a hotel telly. Hudson probably had an unfair advantage now anyway.

She turned the knob of the shower, the steam still billowing around her. No, she had to believe what they said. She had to believe that her Pokémon were staying with her because they wanted to - they had autonomy, and they chose to follow her. She sighed again, rubbing the steam off the mirror.

Her eyes seemed sunken in, the bags still prominent from the days without sleep. She reached toward her reflection, almost unaccustomed to the girl before her. Her fingers grazed along her hollow cheekbones in the mirror. Perhaps she should start eating more, though her appetite hadn’t fully come back yet anyway. If she was going to lead her Pokémon through this Gym Challenge, she needed to be healthy to protect them.

She dried off and pulled her freshly laundered leggings back on. They didn’t sit as tight as they once did - when was the last time she ate, anyway? She tucked her shirt into them, then her skirt over the two. Perhaps that would help keep them up. The brush tugged through her hair, pulling out knots and platinum strands. 

Hudson made a good point, though. Perhaps by battling through the Gym Challenge, she could learn more about this Curse, and more about Pokémon in general. Although she knew of no others with the Nuzlocke Curse, if it was an affliction with a title, someone else had to know of it.

She pondered through questions to ask Sonia as she packed up her belongings and her team. Dolly didn’t know much about Pokémon physiology - just that she could feel their power in her blood when they battled with her. Hop was pretty good at stuff like that, too, maybe he would know some things to help her out. He had a way with Pokémon, and that coupled with his knowledge of their physiology could certainly aid in her quest for figuring out how to break this Curse.

She ran into him as she plodded along to Motostoke Stadium, his radiant grin lifting her spirits a bit more. 

“Slow moving, aren’t you, Dolls? That man of fire Kabu is just what you’d expect - nearly got burned in my battle with him!” he grinned, showing her his League ring and the new Badge lodged in it. 

Dolly nodded to her mate, whose grin turned to one of worry as his eyes flitted about her face. 

“Hey Dolls, I’ve been meaning to ask...are you okay? I was looking at a picture from before we started the Challenge and it made me wonder,” he said as he lifted his hand as if to trace along her cheekbones as she did that morning in the mirror. After a moment he tucked his hands back into his jacket pocket. “Have you been sleeping enough? Eating enough? Your face seems thinner, and you were always pretty small to begin with...”

She looked to the ground, guilt rising in her throat. She never told Hop, had she? As far as he knew, she just never wanted to catch Pokémon back in Postwick. Even Sonia knew about the Curse, but as she looked into the worried eyes of her best friend, she let out a sigh. Now was as good a time as ever to tell him everything.

She pulled him aside, the two sitting on a bench beside the Stadium. She picked at the ends of her hair as she gazed at the ground. 

“Hop, if I tell you something, will you promise not to hate me?”

"What, did you snog with chairman Rose after all?” Hop scoffed.

“I’m serious,” she said, holding back a smile. Hop’s eyes softened.

“Dolls, I could never hate you, trust me. You can tell me anything.”

Her eyes flitted around his face. Never in her life had she known Hop to lie to her - he was pretty terrible at it anyway - and his raw authenticity was one of the qualities she really admired in him.

She heaved in a sigh, then spilled everything. She started with her being able to talk to Pokémon, about meeting her first Pokémon behind her old house, about not wanting to do the Gym Challenge because of her fear of repeating an age-old mistake. He listened intently as she poured out her soul to him - why she never wanted to catch Pokémon, why she was always so afraid to do anything hard. Then she told him about the fire that always blazed within her when she battled with her old friend, then about her ferocious aversion to battling when she died in her arms. She told him about the kids that used to make fun of her at her old school, calling her a freak, a weirdo, a monster who could talk to Pokémon, and that ultimately being the reason why she and her mum moved to Galar. 

Then, she told him about the life that burned in her every time she watched a Pokémon match, the life that bubbled in her skin when she watched Leon decimate each and every Challenger. The fear that quelled it, then the fire that roared in her soul when she battled Hop for the first time in a long time in his front yard. She told him about traveling, bonding with her team, then about Posey, Fay, and Lacey. About their deaths, their gravestones, her self loathing and the encouragement from her remaining teammates. She told him about their encouragement to help her break the Curse, and as Jackson said, battle by her side forever. Hop listened patiently, nodding along as she spilled out her soul.

“So. That’s everything,” she ended, heaving out a final sigh.

The two sat in silence for a while, Hop only gazing at the ground, taking in everything she said. Perhaps he was going to leave, too. Call her a freak, throw her into the dirt and spit in her face like the kids in school had. Or maybe he would call her selfish, that she shouldn’t risk the lives of Pokémon to fuel her own desire. 

“I don’t blame you if you don’t want to be around me anymore,” she whispered, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “There’s plenty of other Challengers that can be a better rival than me, anyway. Perhaps you could find another best ma- _pffllph!_ ”

Dolly's sentence was cut short by the fur of his jacket in her mouth.

He squeezed her body against his as he wrapped his arms around her, fully enveloping her into a hug. 

“Shut up. I’m not leaving you,” he whispered into her hair. “I’m a rubbish friend, I never knew you were going through all of that.”

“You’re not a rubbish friend, you’re my best friend,” she said as she pulled away and looked into his eyes. “I just never told you everything. And either way, I’m getting better, and your encouragement has really helped me,”

He nodded. His brows furrowed as he stared intently back at her, still holding her arms. 

“You are my best mate. You always have been, and you always will be. I will do anything I can to help you,” he said, sliding his hands down and gripping her hands in his. “I’ve never seen you so alive, and all of this makes so much sense. You have to keep going through the Gym Challenge, okay? You have to break the Curse.”

She only nodded, her mouth dry as she felt the intensity coursing from his body to hers. He pulled her into another hug.

“Thank you for trusting me, I can’t imagine how hard it’s been. You’re so brave, and I’m so proud of you,” he mumbled into her hair again. She smiled as he held her head against his shoulder. Her skin tingled as his fingers cautiously wove into her hair.

They sat there a while and Dolly sighed, slowly melding further into the arms of her friend. She couldn’t help but smile at the thought that of course, of course he would still accept her. He was her best friend, and she his, and that’s how they would always, _always_ , be. After a minute, her eyes fluttered open, and Dolly was suddenly acutely aware of the passersby glancing their way.

“Um, Hop?”

Immediately he shot back, sliding to the other end of the bench.

“Right, right,” he spat out, averting his gaze. “I, uh, right.”

She watched curiously as his cheeks tinged pink.

“Well anyway,” he coughed, standing and stretching. “Think you should get a shift on, next step in the Challenge is Kabu, and I bet you could beat the man of fire too!”

She stood as well, a renewed love for her best mate swelling in her heart. They walked into the atrium of the stadium and waved goodbye as he made his way to the stands, she to the locker room.

She heaved in a breath as she stood, staring at her Challenger’s uniform in her hands. The sound from the crowd was pushing through the locker room walls, and Dolly clutched the shirt in her fingers. Her team had trained, and since his evolution, Hudson was stronger now. But, were they ready for this? The last Trainer she battled was Marnie, the last Pokémon she used against a Trainer was Lacey. She didn’t know what she would do if she lost another one. She may fall apart completely, turn to dust in front of the world.

She shook the thought out of her head. No, they trained, and it was too late to back out now. She changed into her uniform, headed out to the pitch, and stood across from Kabu. His eyes bore into hers, he gave a brief introduction, a brief nod, before jogging to the other half of the pitch.

Dolly heaved in a breath, the humidity in the air sticking to her lungs. She had blazed through his Gym mission, through the Trainers, and she hoped she could blaze through Kabu, just as she did with Milo and Nessa.

She had to shake out the image of Posey, of Fay, of Lacey, falling to the ground. Focus. Focus. Focus.

The battle began, and Kabu threw out a Ninetails as she threw out her Mudsdale. This Ninetails was quick, and first it was a burn from a Will-o-Wisp, then it was Fire Spin, then it was Fire Spin, then it was a critical hit Fire Spin. Hudson could barely land a hit as the Ninteails nimbly dodged each attack, slithered under and between Hudson’s legs, landing hit after hit. His robust defense stat protected him little against Ninetail’s special attacks.

Her heart was beating harder, her eyes growing wider, the sweat pricking on her brow from the heat and from the flashes of memories that tore behind her eyelids. She watched again and again as Posey hit the ground, as Fay hit the ground, as Lacey hit the ground. 

She couldn’t breathe when Hudson hit the ground. 

No. 

_Please._

Not again. Not so soon. She couldn’t handle it to happen again, for a fourth time, in front of all of these spectators. She couldn’t bear to etch his name into permanence like the others.

Dolly tore across the pitch, ducking as another Fire Spin tore through the air. Yells from the crowd whirled around her as she fell to her knees in front of him, trying to cover as much of her Mudsdale as she could. He was still breathing, heaving in air, his great torso trembling from the burns and scorch marks that littered his body.

“Stop!” Kabu commanded and the fire died within Ninetails’ throat. Kabu ran to Dolly, who lay shaking and clutching her Mudsdale, a feeble attempt to block any attacks. Her small frame cowered as she clutched at him, trying in vain to protect every bit of his body. 

“I can’t lose another one, I can’t lose another one,” she whimpered as the tears stained Hudson’s coat.

Kabu approached slowly, but her vision was going white. She whipped around in a panic, the cries of the crowd shooting into her skull. They were demanding she get up, continue the battle, to step aside and let them be entertained. She clutched Hudson to her as she took in shallow breaths.

“Get away from him!” she screamed, swiping at anything that dared get close. “I won’t let this bloody Curse take another one from me!”

Kabu stood motionless in front of her.

“Curse?" he repeated. "Your Mudsdale is weakened from a Fire Spin, Challenger, not Curse.”

“The Nuzlocke Curse!” she yelled, still gripping at Hudson. “The bloody Nuzlocke Curse,”

Then, she sobbed, her arms shaking as she tried to hold her Mudsdale. Through her tears she could barely make out Kabu’s eyes as they widened, as something flashed within them, then as he gazed at her solemnly.

“Get up, Challenger Dolly. I will not fight you like this.”

There was more murmuring from the crowd, some frustrated shouts. Their demands for entertainment wavered because plenty of Rotom phones were up, watching, recording. 

“The battle is over, and I will not harm you or your Mudsdale. You and your Pokémon are in no condition to fight,” Kabu said, reaching out a hand. Her vision focused and she comprehended the man before her. Still erratically reaching for Hudson with one arm, she lifted the other to Kabu. He was surprisingly strong and hoisted her to her feet. Ninetails still watched, still paced back and forth.

“You could have killed yourself running in front of a Ninetails preparing an attack. You were foolish, reckless. There is no way you could protect your Mudsdale when you yourself are so feeble,” Kabu said.

His gaze was stern, but there was something else within it. Dolly hung her head as the tears continued to stream down her face. Kabu delicately reached forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Yet, you were courageous. You saw your Pokémon suffering beyond capacity, and you ran in to relieve him, throwing your own life in danger to protect another. In my years, I have seen very few Trainers with that type of courage. It is obvious you love your Pokémon.”

It was something warm, something fatherly, that glimmered in Kabu’s eyes.

“Now, you will leave here and go to the Inn to rest. You and your Pokémon are tired. Then, I expect you to come back to battle me when you are of a healthy body and mind.”

Dolly nodded and pushed the tears off her cheek with her palm. She rummaged on her belt, found his Poké Ball, and returned Hudson to it. 

“Thank you, Mr. Kabu,”

He only nodded. She walked off the pitch, feeling like a speck of dust with every eye on her. 

After changing, she slung her bag over her shoulders and took a breath. She wasn’t sure what was going to face her outside in the atrium, but she knew her first stop was the Pokémon Center. After that, head back to the Budew Drop Inn, and take it from there. The straps on her bags shook as she gripped onto them with trembling hands. As soon as she stepped into the hallway she was almost smacked to the ground.

Something, or rather, someone was squeezing the breath out of her. 

“Oi Dolls, I was worried sick, I almost jumped into the pitch myself when I saw you fall to the ground like that,” came Hop’s muffled voice from by her ear. He stopped hugging her and looked at her from arm’s length, hands still on her shoulders. “Are you alright, mate?”

Dolly nodded shakily, maintaining eye contact with Hop. His brows were furrowed, and the look of worry in his golden eyes was enough to set her off shaking again. His gentle and supportive touch made her realize how lonely she felt throughout all of this - sure she had her Pokémon, but to be held by another human was something different. He immediately held her close as the sobs began pouring out. They racked her body as she limply clutched the back of Hop’s jacket. 

Her body shook with each forceful sob as she tucked her face into his shirt. Everything kept flooding back. Posey, Fay, Lacey. The very thought of going back to the spot where she lost Lacey made her body even heavier. Their lifeless eyes staring at her, telling her it was all her fault. Their silhouettes lying like a heap of mangled wet laundry on the ground of a cave, on the bricks of Motostoke. Their graves and the crude scrawl on their gravestones. It was all her fault, and she almost lost Hudson too. The sobs racked her body until she felt like she was nothing but bones clattering against one another. Weak, brittle bones.

She didn’t know how long they stood like that. Time didn’t exist, space didn’t exist, the only thing that she knew was how her eyes hurt, how her head hurt, how her heart hurt. The shoulder of Hop’s denim jacket was soaked thoroughly, as was his collar, and her face felt raw from tears. 

“Mate, it’s okay,” Hop whispered reassuringly. He pat her back as she sniffled into his shirt. “You can’t let this eat at you forever - accidents happen. You would never hurt one of your Pokémon on purpose, right?” 

She shook her head into his sleeve with a hiccup. 

Never on purpose, never, never, never. He held her as she stood whimpering into his shirt. It was like his entire being was enveloped around her, protecting her from the glances and whispers of the people in the atrium, protecting her from everything in the outside world.

After a while he stepped back and held her shoulders again. She didn’t even want to know what kind of mess she looked like. She smeared the tears off of her face and her hair hung like a curtain. 

Hop smiled at her, brushing the hair aside and tucking it behind her ear.

“Hey, look mate, you care enough about your Pokémon to jump in front of Kabu’s Ninetails while it was shooting off Fire Spins. Now I may not know a ton of people, but I do know you’re the only one crazy enough to do something like that,” he smiled, shaking her shoulders lightly. “No one can say you don’t care about your Pokémon because you just showed the whole world that you’d do anything to protect them.”

She nodded again as the corner of her mouth twitched up.

“Ah, there’s a smile! Now where’s the Dolls I know? Level-headed and brave, clever, determined? The one who out-ate everyone in Wedgehurst in a spicy curry eating contest?”

Dolly let out a laugh, wiping her cheeks again.

“That was a good day,” she said. “Not too great that night, though.”

“You’re telling me,” Hop laughed. He pinched his nose. “I don’t know how your mum survived, I could smell it all the way from my house.”

“Oh, pack it in, you twit,” Dolly laughed, punching his arm.

“There she is,” Hop said softly, rubbing his arm. “You head off to your room and get some sleep, yeah? Sounds like Kabu’s done for the night anyway. Do you want me to go with you there?”

“I need some time to think,” she sighed, shaking her head. “Thanks though, Hop.” 

Something changed within her as she looked at him. It dawned on her how kind he just was, how caring, and how just a twitch of his eyebrow could affect her so much. He knew absolutely everything about her, and he knew exactly what she needed at that moment. Never before had she felt so safe and protected like she did when his arms were around her like that... It was like nothing else in the world could touch her. It was like she could cry there forever, and he would still hold her close, still keep her together. Her mouth opened and closed, then she breathed out a laugh. 

“Really, Hop, thank you.”

He grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck. Through her smudged and teary glasses, she wasn’t sure, but she thought she caught a bit of red tingeing his cheeks again.

“Alright alright, no need to get all mushy like that,” he said. He turned her around by her shoulders and started pushing her out the door. “Now get out of here, tears don’t count as a Water-type attack. Gotta beat Kabu tomorrow with your actual Pokémon,”

She laughed, gave him a final wave, and stepped out into the dark city street.

The cool night air was refreshing on her face, if not a bit chilly. Her eyes were sore from crying, and the cold pounded into them and against the tear tracks on her cheeks. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket and headed towards the Budew Drop Inn. Little raindrops were speckling the ground, dotting the dark bricks of the path. Dolly glanced to the sky.

Dark clouds billowed overhead, the threat of thunder rumbling in the distance. She never minded storms, especially when she could sit and watch them from her window. They were poetic, in a way, like how the entire sky couldn’t hold back such a surge of power, such a pulse of emotion. She always wanted to be like a storm; dark and powerful, bold and unabashedly passionate. Perhaps a little ferocious, like a Tyranitar, though she was more like a tiny mewing Cubchoo.

When she looked back down, she noticed how a few onlookers followed her with their eyes. She gave them an awkward wave and tucked her jacket collar up over her mouth. 

There were a surprising number of people on the streets that night, and she thought that perhaps they all left the stadium after her battle with Kabu was cut short. As she tried to weave through the pedestrians and onlookers, it became harder and harder to squeeze past. Murmurs flicked through the air just as the raindrops did, but she could only make out bits and pieces of sentences.

_“Curse…”_

“ _She always was suspicious…_ ” 

“ _Didn’t that interview with Challenger Bede…_ ”

“... _say something about her and an Eevee...?_ ” 

She clutched her jacket closer to her face and kept looking forward. She could feel the eyes of the crowd boring through her. Unlike the rain, they latched to her skin.

“Hey, _Dolly_ ,” she heard from somewhere in front of her. She had never heard her name said with such venom before. 

She couldn’t make out the person who said it. They spoke again. 

“Do you get some sort of sick satisfaction by killing your Pokémon?”

Her brow furrowed, her head turning and eyes shifting from person to person.

“N-no,” she said, more meekly than she anticipated. “It’s not like that,”

“She’s one of those freaks! With the Nuzlocke Curse!” someone else shouted.

She heard a few people in the group gasp. Mutters, surrounding her like snakes in the air, encircled her closer and closer until they bound her like ropes. It was like they were tightening around her lungs. Bodies pressed together in front of her, arms and legs and limbs all brushing against her as she tried to manage her way through the crowded street. 

“I’ve never heard of that before,” she heard someone say.

Her head whipped around, each face starting to blur into darkness.

“I hear they kill Pokémon for fun to feel some sort of control,”

More gasps.

Dolly tried to defend herself, but her voice was lost in the harsh whispers that were slowly growing louder. The rain bore no defense for her, as it pricked her skin and blurred the reprieve of the Budew Drop Inn.

“Yeah, that Bede kid said she killed an Eevee!”

“Didn’t you used to have a Wooloo?”

Disgruntled shouts, now. The rain was splattering against the bricks.

“What a monster,” someone yelled from the back.

Harassment kept stabbing her from the crowd. The words and water cut her in the face, in the back, behind the knees. Someone stood in front of her path.

“Monster,” they spat in her face.

“Freak,” from somewhere else in the crowd.

“ _Murderer_ ,”

The crowd started to close in, angry shouting filled every speck of space outside and inside her head. She shouldn’t be with Pokémon if she only abused them.

Dolly’s eyes flicked around wildly. People were closing in all around her. Her head whipped around. They were right, Dolly thought, eyes growing wide. Her knees began to buckle.

_They’re right. They’re right they’re right they’re right I’m a killer I can’t be with Pokémon, who am I kidding?_

“She needs to be disqualified!”

 _It’s true_ , she thought. 

As the rain sloshed beneath her loafers, her thoughts started whipping through her head. Splattered, sputtered, tore through her mind as the wind howled.

_I should have quit. I should have never started I was right I should have given Leon his Pokémon back I should have never met Jackson or the rest of my Pokémon they probably don’t even like me they are only fighting with me because they’re scared to leave I knew it they’re too scared to leave they’re scared of me they can’t love me everything they said was a lie it has to be they can’t love me I’m not worth loving I’m a freak I can’t stay here I need to leave I’m not good enough to leave I deserve this I’m a monster useless useless useless murderer murderer MURDERER_

Someone shoved her to the ground, the cold bricks scratching the side of her face, her head smacking against the concrete.

People swarmed around her. She folded her arms over her head and squeezed herself tightly into a ball. The shouts magnified above her, echoing in her ears and in her head. Her body shook and her thoughts swarmed, clambering in and out with the shouts around her like the rain did.

_I should have stayed home I should have stayed home then I wouldn’t be here I wouldn’t have killed Posey I wouldn’t have killed Fay I wouldn’t have killed Lacey and even Faline they’re all dead because of me because I’m a monster because I’m a pathetic loser I’m useless useless useless_

Someone grabbed a fistful of her hair. She dropped to the ground as screams echoed and a flash of hot light tore through the air.

She closed her eyes, tucking her knees closer to her chest and her arms tighter around her head. Maybe if she made herself small enough, she would disappear completely. Something in her mind snapped and it felt like she was floating - as if her body was vibrating so quickly she was floating through the air.

Her cheek was wet. Or was it the pavement? Her body tingled like she was a single dot on the screen of a disconnected television. Always moving, never moving.

The voices swam around above her head like fish above the sea floor. Murky, muddled, underwater. Something shot through the water like a spear. It was a voice, someone was shouting. It faded along with the rest.

She slowly opened her eyes and traced the ridges in the pavement. She was surprised to see she wasn’t completely underwater, though she flinched whenever the raindrops would hit her face. Her arms were out in front of her now, though she couldn’t remember moving them. Her eyes followed the hem of her sleeve until she reached her fingers, flung out in front of her. She traced the outline of her nails with her eyes. They were ridged, her gaze glazing over the callouses and the hangnails. That was still a bad habit, she needed to stop picking at her fingers. She did it a lot, especially when she was anxious.

Her chest heaved at the thought of the word. It was like the world was moving quickly and slowly at the same time. Like she was simultaneously moving backwards and staying still.

Another word shot through the space around her head.

Another word, this time pricking her arm. It hurt. It was pulling her off the ground. The water was moving fast now, she felt her legs dangling.

 _Ugh no don’t touch me don’t touch me don’t touch me_ , she thought. She needed to fit perfectly between the ridges in the brick road. She needed to etch herself into the ground, so no one could touch her static skin.

The water was quieting, smoother.

She heard another voice. She squeezed her eyes closed, then opened again a few times. The barrage and waterfalls surrounding her stopped when she heard the voice again.

“Challenger Dolly,”

She blinked again.

“Dolly, can you hear me?”

She jerked her head to the sound of the voice.

“Dolly, if you can hear me, can you nod?”

She nodded. She heard a sigh of relief.

The fuzziness began to fade, and the static of the television of her mind began to focus. She saw the furrowed brow and grayed hair of a man above her. Where had she seen him before? The rain was still falling, the dark clouds still billowed.

“Who are you?” She didn’t sound like herself. The sound that came out was hoarse and tough.

“I’m taking you to the Inn.”


	8. Sun in the Mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Sap (Charjabug), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Oddish)

**Chapter 8 - Sun in the Mine**

A crack of thunder split through her unconscious and Dolly woke with a start, gasping for air. It took her a moment to process where she was, who she was, what was going on. She heard someone let out a breath.

“You’re up,” the voice said. “You had us all quite worried out there.”

Her eyes adjusted and she recognized Kabu sitting in a chair beside her. Water dripped off his sleeves as he rested his elbows on his knees.

Dolly furrowed her brow as she began to sit up. She tried to swing her legs off the bed and flinched - it was like the lightning tore through her head, ravaged and throbbed by her temple.

“Take it easy,” another voice said. “You hit your head pretty hard on the pavement,”

Dolly looked to this new voice and saw Sonia sitting at the end of the bed. Both Kabu and Sonia shared the same, furrowed expression.

“Sonia too? Where am I?” she asked, slowly taking in her surroundings. The furnishings were sparse, but high quality. A few red chairs, some picture frames on the wall, a corner of a nightstand beside her. She had seen these things before.

A door opened and a flash of dark red and gold came running in. 

“How is she?”

Leon came up to Dolly and knelt beside the bed. He gingerly ran a hand across her forehead, and she winced again as the lightning struck outside.

“How you doing, little Dolly?” Leon asked. “Some mess out there, huh?”

“I guess so,” she said. She couldn’t look him in the eyes. He probably thought she was disgusting, too.

He gave her a smile, brows furrowed. He looked to Sonia, then to Kabu.

“I chased off that mad mob,” he said as he removed his hand from her head and clenched it on the nightstand. His shoulders were shaking. “I don’t know what that bloody group was thinking, attacking a young girl like that... Shouting all those obscenities at her, surrounding her like a pack of wild Mightyenas.” 

He pounded a fist on the table and her head pounded with it.

“Leon,” Dolly managed to get out. “Will I be disqualified from the Gym Challenge?”

Leon whipped his head around to her again. The anger melted from his face.

“No...no of course not, Dolly. Please don’t worry about that, you’re not disqualified,” he said. A grin began to spread across his face. “In fact, I fully expect to see you and your Pokémon on the Champion pitch with me by the end of this,”

Although her innards felt like sludge and her mind felt like mud, something about the way he smiled at her was comforting. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she certainly felt safer with him there. He chased off an entire mob through a thunderstorm then cared enough to come visit her here. Dolly never had any siblings, but she could imagine this is what it would feel like to have a kind, protective, doting older brother. Hop was lucky.

“Dolly,” Kabu said abruptly. “You must rest. I will not battle you until you are fully healed,”

Dolly looked at her hands folded in front of her. The skin around her fingers was red and raw - she hadn’t realized she had been picking at them.

“I know, you said that on the pitch.”

“I mean physically, mentally, and emotionally. This has been quite the ordeal. Not any way for decent people to behave, and unfortunately you were on the receiving end of that misbehavior. When you are feeling better, we must have a conversation. Meet me in Galar Mine No. 2 when you are ready.”

Despair sank into her heart at the sound of it. She barely managed through the mine each time she had gone into that forsaken place, and she had vowed to never step foot in it again. Kabu left and closed the door before she could respond.

After a moment, she looked around again. She was lying in a bed of crisp linens, though they were damp where she and Sonia were sitting. Her jacket was laying on the chair by a desk, her bag was set on the dresser across from her. She glanced to the window. Through a crack in the curtains she could see the night rain pattering against the glass. Sonia sat at the foot of her bed, and Leon was kneeling beside it.

“Where’s Hop?” she asked.

Sonia snickered and Leon heaved out a sigh, looking to the ceiling. 

“That little brother of mine was a proper mess,” Leon said, rubbing his forehead. “Utterly useless as getting milk from a Tauros. Kept nattering on about Ninetails and Pecha berries and you and a Deerling, he was making the rest of us panicked too. So, I sent him on an errand to heal up your Pokémon for you, worried he was using up all the air in the room with how much he was talking.”

“Oh don’t make her feel worse, Leon,” Sonia huffed. She softly looked at Dolly. “He just cares about you, yeah? We all do. That’s why we were pretty worried with that mad group screaming at you in a bloody thunderstorm,”

“Sorry to be such a bother…” she said, looking at her thumbs. The despair settled again, leaking into her veins. 

Useless. Pulling in these kind, intelligent, and established people because she couldn’t handle herself. Sonia could be continuing her research, Hop could be heading to the next Gym, and Leon was literally the Champion of the region and could be doing a thousand other things right now. And there they were, wasting time in an Inn with a useless Trainer. A sopping wet rat. Wasting their time with a monster, a freak, a murderer.

“Oh, no,” Leon said, pulling her from her thoughts. “Don’t you go feeling sorry for yourself again. You’re safe and sound here, you’re going to rest up, then you’re going to face Kabu again soon. Got it? That’s an order from Galar’s Champion, and a request from a friend,”

Sonia nodded and walked to the closet.

“I know both me and Leon have only known you for a little bit, but we both care about you a lot, yeah? You’ve become something like a little sister to the both of us, and we’re glad to see you safe.”

She took out a fuzzy blanket, walked over, and furled it around Dolly’s shoulders with a smile. She tucked it around her snuggly, then tapped Dolly on the nose. Leon nodded alongside Sonia as she spoke. He gently patted Dolly’s hand and flashed a grin. 

“Yeah, I’ve been asking my mum for years for a baby sister, since all I got was Hop. Figure I know everything about you anyway from how much he talks about you,”

Dolly let out a laugh despite her throbbing head. 

“Um, thanks,” she said, as a small, genuine smile bloomed on her face. 

Little sister…? She certainly felt little. Even if she didn’t fully understand why they cared, she did feel safer with the both of them there with her. Those people outside wouldn’t come in and yell at her with them protecting her. Perhaps they were being honest, otherwise why would they be here? 

“Speaking of Hop,” Leon muttered, looking to the door. “I swear that little brother of mine sprints everywhere he goes, not sure what’s taking him so long now.”

As if on cue, a banging came from the door. Dolly jumped and conveniently refreshed her headache. The second Leon opened the hotel door, Hop burst in. 

“How is she? Where is she? Is she up? Is she awake? How is she?”

“Right where we left her, Hop,” Sonia laughed. 

Dolly smiled weakly at her friend. She watched as his shoulders relaxed and he heaved out a sigh. Her own shoulders relaxed when Sonia stood up, and he clambered to her spot at the edge of the bed. 

“Why are you so determined to give me a heart attack? Keep this up and I’ll be in the hospital for cardiac arrest at the ripe age of eighteen,” he joked, clutching his chest. “I’ve got your Pokémon all healed up for you.” 

He held out the Poké Balls before her. She took them and set them on the nightstand beside her, then glanced at each of them. They were all gazing at her, sopping wet, and smiling. A blush crept up on her cheeks at the care each of them exuded.

“Thanks again,” she said. “To all of you.” 

She nodded at each of her friends, holding eye contact with Hop another second as she watched a small smile appear. Although Sonia and Leon did make her feel safe, it was nothing compared to Hop. He wasn’t new, and she wasn’t confused as to why he would be there. She felt a little better, sat a little taller, now that he was in the room with her too.

Sonia and Leon looked between the two Trainers, then swapped a brief glance with each other. 

“Well, I’m sure you two are famished, Leon and I will go and pick up some dinner for us,”

“Why can’t we just get something deliver- _hrrk_ ,” Leon grunted as Sonia shoved her elbow into his ribs. 

One of Dolly’s Poké Balls rolled off the nightstand, so when she bent to retrieve it she missed Sonia widening her eyes, flicking them between Dolly and Hop, then Leon breathing out an ‘oh.’

When she sat back up, Dolly heard her stomach gurgle. It seemed everyone else heard it too and Hop’s eyebrows pulled together.

“Sounds like you’ve got an Exploud in there.”

“Stuff it, you,” she said, then stuck her tongue out at Hop. 

Sonia smirked and she and Leon shared another look. 

“Alright you two, we’re off,” Leon said as he and Sonia headed out the door.

“Make sure it’s something good, Sonia!” Hop yelled at the pair as the door was closing. “Leon has no taste in anything good,” he grumbled, more to himself than anyone.

“Thanks for healing up my Pokémon, Hop,” Dolly said, slowly sitting up against the headboard of the bed. Hop mirrored her, and kicked off his shoes and sat cross-legged across from her. Her stomach growled again, and he set his hands on his hips, suddenly stern. 

“Dolls.”

She looked up at him guiltily.

“Seriously, when was the last time you ate anything? You’re going to wither away. Are your Pokémon eating enough?”

“Yes! Of course they are,” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m not going to let them starve, what kind of Trainer would I be?”

“So you won’t starve them, but you’ll starve yourself?” Hop sighed again, his eyes tracing along her face. “If you can’t take care of yourself for your own sake, at least do it for theirs...and for mine.”

Dolly watched his brows furrow, his shoulders slump. Oh man, guilt trip. 

“Alright, alright,” she sighed with a hint of a smile. “If that’ll get you to stop looking at me like a sad little Lillipup.”

“Excellent, just what I wanted to hear.” he grinned. Her heart quickened. 

Dolly tugged her blanket around herself, gazing again out the window and into the night. As she rested her head on her knees, she watched the rain splatter against the paned glass. Hop followed her gaze, also watching as the dark water trailed down the panes. Lightning flashed and the boom of thunder followed. Dolly heaved in a sigh, still feeling small, still feeling raw, as flashes from earlier shot through her head like the lightning outside.

“Hop?”

He looked at her, golden eyes darting about her face in the yellow light of the room.

“Can I have a hug?” she asked softly.

It didn’t even take a second before he crawled over and wrapped his arms around her. Instinctively she sighed, curling her arms around him in return. Even though the yelling and the flashing and the thoughts that tore through her mind shook her reality, when he wrapped his arms around her like, that she felt grounded.

The rain was softening, now only tapping against the glass as Dolly’s eyes fluttered closed. She listened to it and the sound of Hop’s heart thrumming in his chest. The combination was oddly soothing. She breathed out a sigh, wisping away a few strands of platinum hair that had settled on her face. Hop sighed as well.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said from beside her ear. “When I came out of the stadium, I just saw a bunch of people standing in the rain, I had no idea what was going on. When Lee told me and then I saw Kabu with you, I... I…”

He sighed again and hugged her closer.

“I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Dolly nodded as her consciousness started to slip. The rain and his heartbeat by her ear were like a lullaby, a sweet melody luring her into sleep. Her eyelids were heavy as his voice rumbled against her again.

“I know I said it before, Dolls, but I’m real proud of you. You’re my best mate, and my best rival, and I need you to be there with me when I beat my brother in the Championship match. So... I’m...I’m glad you’re okay.”

She breathed out a hum of agreement, her head starting to feel heavy as well. 

“You should consider yourself lucky,” Hop said after a while. “Not many are blessed with so many Hop hugs in a day.”

She snorted, torn from her half-conscious state. She finally pulled away, tucking the blanket around her shoulders again.

“I’ll think about that next time I’m attacked by a mob,”

“That’s all I ask. Now,” he said, reaching into his pocket. “Although Hop hugs are known for their healing qualities, I know of only one other whose hugs are superior to mine...” 

In a flash of light the bed sank as a Wooloo appeared beside them. 

“No one can feel sad after hugging my Wooloo! Go on, mate,” he grinned, shooing Wooloo over to her.

Dolly held out her arms for the Wooloo, an easy grin spreading over her face.

“Hi there, Dolly,” Wooloo bleated. “Happy to be of assistance.” He turned around three times and plopped onto her lap as she let out a feminine ‘ _oof_.’

“Well anyway, I know what else will make you feel better. I was thinking I’ve gotta show you this Challenger’s match and you can tell me what you think,” Hop said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. 

He crawled next to Dolly, sitting up against the headboard of the bed as well. There the two sat, watching and critiquing a fellow Gym Challenger. He moved closer when she mentioned she couldn’t get a good look at the match over Wooloo’s wool. It wasn’t until Sonia and Leon buzzed back into the room that she noticed half of her body was resting against Hop’s, his arm slung behind her head on the top of the headboard. Dolly hid her face in Wooloo’s coat after she saw the sly grin that appeared on Sonia’s face and the look that she shared with Leon.

The two older Trainers spread out an extra sheet and their meal on the bed, everyone kicking off their shoes and settling in for some grub. It didn’t take long for Dolly to laugh again as the two brothers bickered back and forth with some sarcastic commentary from Sonia and herself. After their dinner, Sonia mentioned how she was dying to play this new game she had heard about on a podcast, and the four of them spent a surprising amount of time trying to guess what Pokémon Leon was trying to pantomime. Dolly would have thought he’d be better at acting out a Charizard.

Near the end of their final round, Dolly's eyes were slowly dropping closed. As she gazed around at her odd bunch of friends, she smiled just a little, much more peaceful and confident than she had been earlier that day. Sonia noticed, they all cleaned up their mess, then she shooed the two boys out. She had to shove Hop out with her shoulder.

“I’m right down the hall if you need, Dolly,” Sonia said in the doorway. “And Leon and Hop are right next door. Call on any of us if you need anything,” 

Dolly gave her a nod. 

“I mean it. No more of this ‘Ooo I don’t want to be a bother,’ nonsense. You can pull that with your other friends and what have you, but not us,” she said, pointing at her own eyes, then swiveling her two fingers to Dolly. 

Dolly laughed and nodded as Sonia closed the door. The affection for her friends was overwhelming as she rubbed at her chest where her heart beat. She had known Hop for forever, but her appreciation for Sonia and Leon grew ten-fold that night. She smiled despite herself, feeling a bit safer in the world knowing those two were looking out for her. She met Sonia only a short while ago, but the woman had gone out of her way time and time again to be a support beam for her - fixing her up after the Wild Area, fixing her up again when they sat at the pier in Hulbury, and now tonight.

And not only that, she was glad that her stupid infatuation with the Champion had shifted, seeing him now as just another person she could finally have a normal conversation - and he was just as weird as his brother. It was actually a bit fun watching him chew with his mouth open and suck at charades without the weight of the world on him. She smiled at the thought of having a new older brother, so willing and ready to look out for her. She chuckled again to herself, and it didn’t take long for the sound of the rain to finally lull her to sleep.

~~

Dolly took in a breath and stepped into the mine. She wandered through the glittering cave, the gemstones sparkling and shimmering against the sandy floor. Although once she found the silky purple sand beautiful, now it made her stomach churn. Kabu was standing in the center of a clearing near the end of the cave. He was facing away from her when she walked up to him.

“Hi Mr. Kabu,” she muttered. Her voice echoed meekly throughout the cavern.

The only recognition that he gave her was a slight tilt of his head.

“What do you see here, Dolly?” he asked, gesturing toward the walls.

Dolly paused in her steps toward him. She looked past him, wondering if there was something specific he was talking about. Nothing seemed astronomically different from the last handful of times she had been in the mine. The same rocks, the same gemstones, the same minecart, the same tools left on the ground.

“A wall...?” 

Another curt nod.

"What else?”

“Gemstones...dirt...rocks…” she listed off, brows furrowing. If this were a test, she felt her marks were rubbish.

Kabu started walking closer to her, past her, and up to one of the walls behind her. 

“And here?”

Dolly turned. Again, nothing seemed different about this wall then the rest of the walls around them. She crossed her arms, trying to hide her huff of frustration.

“Is there something I should be seeing here, Mr. Kabu? I don’t see anything different, it’s just a bunch of rocks.” 

“Come closer,”

She obeyed and walked up to stand next to the Gym Leader. As she was standing closer, she realized that the wall still looked like a conglomerate of rocks. Not very impressive rocks, either. They were gray, brown, ridged. Pretty lackluster, as rocks normally are.

Kabu took a deep breath. Dolly unconsciously did the same.

Suddenly, he slammed the palm of his hand against the center of the wall in front of them. A section of the wall cracked, and a puff of dust floated into the air around them. Kabu plucked something from the wall and placed it in Dolly’s hands. Dolly waited for the dust to settle as she rubbed it from her eyes.

“It’s...just a rock?” she said, a sigh of defeat escaping her lips. Great.

“It does seem so, doesn’t it?” Kabu said.

He took a step towards her and picked the rock back up. He observed it, turning it as he spoke. 

“To the untrained and ignorant eye, this stone is common, dirty, even ugly. It is surrounded by glittering and shining gemstones that are much more beautiful than it, things that people would much rather look at. It is easy to ignore, and it is easy to be disappointed when you receive this in your hands with so much magnificence around you. Stones like this can be thrown to hurt others, to break windows...”

He met her gaze.

“They can be used to murder.”

Dolly's posture deflated.

“Why are you telling me this? I already feel like rubbish, Mr. Kabu…”

“But,” he continued, looking her in the eyes. “They can also be used as a structure. They can be used to skip across lakes, placed in a garden to protect the plants within it.”

As he spoke, he began to rub his hand across the surface of the stone. Pieces and flecks began to crumble away.

“And, only with pressure…”

A crack appeared, and with two hands, he broke the halves apart. Surrounded by the gray and brown stone, brilliant oranges and reds glimmered. 

“...can you truly see what lies within.” he said as he placed one of the halves into Dolly’s hands.

“A Sun Stone…” she whispered.

“A beautiful gemstone is not easily found, Dolly, but when it is, it may decorate walls or adorn the head of royalty. A stone like this may be sought after, chased, and yet, sometimes ridiculed when one has it and others do not. It’s uniqueness may be what causes some to hate it, and causes some to hate those who have it.”

Dolly gazed at the stone in her hands as she processed Kabu’s words.

"You are not the only one with your condition, Dolly. There are others like you,” he said.

Her eyes grew wide. She clutched the stone as she looked up to Kabu. 

“You mean there are more people with the Nuzlocke Curse?” 

The Gym Leader nodded. He motioned to a bench beneath some of the most lustrous gemstones. She followed and sat beside him. He leaned his elbows on his knees, and his gaze grew distant.

“When I lived in Hoenn, I knew a Trainer named May,” he began. It was like Kabu wasn't looking at his hands in front of him, but into the past. The weathered and seasoned man beside her seemed to become a boy the same age of seventeen. He continued after a pause.

“She was much like you: determined, skilled, clever. She was magnetic to the people and Pokémon around her, even if she did not realize it. We traveled together for a while and she would always be victorious in our battles together. She never lost. That was, until one day, she was overconfident, overzealous, and faced a Pokémon Gym before she and her Pokémon were ready.”

His head tilted downward.

“Her team was destroyed. She rushed to the Pokémon Center, but there was nothing they could do. The nurse said they would never wake again.” he said as he raised his head to the ceiling, eyes closed. “She, in turn, was destroyed. The knowledge of her carelessness and the memories of her teammates would haunt her for the rest of her life.”

Dolly’s throat tightened.

"No one knew why, either,” he continued. “May had never lost before, so no one could know that this would happen. As news spread that a Trainer’s Pokémon did not only faint, but perish, people began to talk. Everyone thought she pushed her Pokémon too hard; that she was abusive and a terrible person - a monster. She became the poster child against Pokémon battles. Eventually, the more she was called a monster, the more she started to believe it.”

“Mr. Kabu…” Dolly started. The tears began to prick in her eyes, as her soul sank when she thought about her own team members that perished, two in this very mine.

“She could hardly stand to look at Pokémon after that. After a time of mourning though, she began to ask questions. With the help of her friends, family, she began to look beyond what happened and began to ask why. Why was it that when others lost Pokémon battles, the Pokémon could easily be revived with medicine or a trip to the Pokémon Center? But hers were gone forever?”

Dolly looked to Kabu. She hadn’t noticed before, but there were tear tracks on his face and spots of darkness on the ground beneath him. He still looked like he was gazing into years and places she had never seen. She felt like she knew this May. She could relate to the pain and tragedy she had experienced: her, being full of life, only to have it ripped away, then living with the guilt of surviving after her partners hadn’t.

“It was then that she remembered a vision she had, something she had passed off as a fever dream when she was sick years before. A dream that told her to listen to her intuition, to trust Pokémon, and achieve greatness beside them.”

Dolly gasped and her eyes grew wide. Her heart raced as she was sucked back to her own vision in the Slumbering Weald; to those exact words that were spoken to her through the mysterious mist. 

“Through tumultuous research and much, much opposition, she discovered how to reverse her Curse, the very same Nuzlocke Curse that flows in your blood.”

“It can be reversed?!” Dolly gasped, springing to her feet.

Her startled exclamation caused a group of Swoobat to fly from their perches to outside the mine. Kabu leaned against the wall behind them and folded his arms across his chest. 

“She realized she was cursed when she was a child. She doesn’t remember who, or how, only that it happened. She was blessed with incredible talent and the ability to communicate with Pokémon - but not without a price. If she could train and grow with a team of Pokémon to achieve greatness, she would be granted one wish by the protector of the region. For her, it was a Pokémon called Rayquaza…”

“...So she did,” he continued. “She started from scratch, and through trials, tribulations, and much more loss and defeat, she emerged victorious. She overcame the obstacles facing her and her country, halted the most furious weather changes the region had ever seen, became the Champion, and was granted the opportunity to face Rayquaza. She bested it and it granted her one wish.”

He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall behind them.

“To this day I do not know what she wished for. I do not know if she wished away her Curse, because before I could ask, before I could say goodbye, she disappeared. I never heard from her again.”

Dolly looked to the Sun Stone still glimmering in her hands. 

“Her story and yours are uncommon, but not unheard of," Kabu said from beside her. "Other regions have Trainers who walk the streets, carrying the burden of the Nuzlocke Curse and the memories of their lost Pokémon. And, just as theirs was, your future is yours to decide, Challenger Dolly. You have been given this Curse, that much is determined. What isn’t, however, is how you react to it.” 

He took one of her hands and placed it over the other, enfolding the Sun Stone in her palms. 

“Because of the hand you have been dealt, you will always face opposition. You will always face those who disagree with your actions and how you choose to face the future. Even then, amongst the challenging dirt, the confusing dust, and the ugly words people will say about you...” 

He opened her hands and the Sun Stone shone. It glimmered in the sunset sun that was shining through the exit of the mine. Its brilliant reds and oranges shone and glistened, speckling the walls and floor around them.

“...Even beyond these things,” he continued. “You can find greatness.”

As he said this, he closed her hands over one another over the stone until its shine gleamed only on her fingers. Kabu stood and walked to the exit of the mine, leaving Dolly to gaze at the potential for greatness that lay within her hands.


	9. The Champion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Sap (Charjabug), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Gloom)

**Chapter 9 - The Champion**

Dolly walked through the lobby of the Motostoke stadium, painfully aware of the whispers and glances directed toward her. Her eyes flicked to each face, but no one seemed daring enough to make eye contact with her. Even the televisions around the lobby blared at her, showing footage of her running onto the pitch in front of Ninteails and dropping to the ground. Slow motion, pause, the show hosts said something to one another, both laughed. 

She grimaced, hiking her bag up higher on her shoulders. 

She had become quite the media spectacle within days - almost overnight. That wasn’t the first time she watched talk show hosts show her picture; she continuously saw her face on screens throughout Motostoke. News clips or talk shows blared in the hotel lobby, in the Pokémon Center, even here in the atrium, each one of them fascinated with Challenger 052 and what strange condition she carried.

The subtitle beneath this one advertised her match with Kabu that was happening today and encouraged viewers to call in with their opinions on how her match would go this time. She shoved her hands in her pockets and tore her eyes away. That was something new to tell her mum next time she called, that she was now the subject of a bidding pool on the telly. She would be so proud.

Her fingers brushed against the Sun Stone in her pocket. That was where it stayed, ever since Kabu handed it to her. It was a reminder of what she could be, and not necessarily what she was. She took in a breath, blocking out the glances and the murmurs around her. After checking in, changing, and standing in the locker room before the match, Dolly took in another breath.

For her team. For herself. To break the Curse and forever kindle the passion that burned in her skin, as hot as the heat wafting in from the stadium, as thick as the humidity in the air.

“Alright team,” she said to them as they quivered in their Poké Balls. “Let’s show all of Galar what we can do.”

She tossed her hair behind her and stood tall, shoulders back. She had trained, her Pokémon were stronger, she had the support of three incredible friends, and she was confident there would be no other outcome except victory. If she could beat Milo and Nessa without even trying, then the world was in for something else, because now she was ready to pull out all the stops.

Kabu came up beside her, and they silently made their way to the center of the pitch. The crowd roared, the air shuddering in anticipation for this young and fascinating Trainer. Dolly could pick out jeering among the cheers in the audience, all of the noise swarming together into the tidal wave of sound, pulsing into the thickness of the air. She pushed it out, focusing only on each powerful step as she walked beside Kabu. They arrived at the center of the pitch, and Kabu turned to her. 

"It is quite the accomplishment that you've made it here. Every Trainer and Pokémon train hard in pursuit of victory, but this means your opponent is also working hard to win. In the end, the match is decided by which side is unable to unleash their true potential."

Dolly looked to the Gym Leader before her.

"I hope that we both may find greatness today," he continued. "Here, in this match."

Dolly nodded as Kabu turned. He jogged to the other end of the pitch, and she made her way to hers. The air was already thick as Dolly tossed Hudson’s Poké Ball up and down. It went up, down, up, down, just in time with the beat of her heart. Then, she threw it.

The crowd cheered as the Mudsdale and Ninetails appeared before them again - one bulky and dense, the other quick and nimble.

"You've returned," the Ninetails said, looking beyond Hudson into Dolly's eyes. 

Dolly only nodded as Hudson lunged forward in an attack. This Ninetails moved swiftly, but Hudson’s steps were sturdy and powerful. With each and every attack, Ninetails lurched forward, but Hudson's defense only grew stronger. His great muscles flexed, sweat dripping from both Pokémon and Trainer in the heat of the battle. After the intensity of their training, Hudson barely faltered at the attacks that once sent him to the floor.

Dolly's shirt was sticking to her back, her glove almost sliding off her hand from the moisture. She undid the top button on her collar, her skin barely able to breath in the heat. She pushed her glasses up with her shoulder as she bounded around the pitch, calling to Hudson as he made his way through Ninetails, through Arcanine, and finally to Kabu's Centiskorch.

The Centiskorch Gigantimaxed, weaving through the air like a dragon of fire and raising the temperature even hotter. Dolly called Hudson back, and heaved his Poké Ball into the air behind her as he Dynamaxed. The sweat flung off her hand as she ordered him forward, rocks and pebbles shooting through the air as he attacked. A sandstorm whipped up from the rocks that Hudson summoned, and Kabu fell to the dirt as his Centiskorch shrunk, calling out waves of fire into the air. Dolly felt her eyebrows were about to singe off as Centiskorch shot a final blast on his way down. She tumbled to the ground to avoid the flames.

When the Centiskorch finally returned to his Poké Ball, Hudson galloped back to his Trainer, sweat flying off of his powerful torso. He lifted her up with his nose and she clutched him in her arms, sweat and dirt and soot completely engulfing both of them. The voice of the commentator cut through the thickness of the air.

"Another show-stopping performance! Challenger Dolly emerges victorious!"

Her Mudsdale let out a powerful whinny as he reared, stomping onto the ground again. Dolly stumbled as the ground shook under his weight, laughing and squeezing him again. This was the feeling she needed - to cling to her Pokémon in the ecstasy of victory instead of the panic of defeat.

Dolly returned Hudson to his Poké Ball and met Kabu in the middle. His brow and shirt were drenched as well - no wonder he kept that towel around his neck. She wiped off her forehead, though there wasn't much point as her arm was already completely saturated with sweat. 

"Great Pokémon and a great Trainer! It's no surprise that you won,” Kabu said. “Just as I knew you could. To meet you in the middle of the pitch like this is much more refreshing to this old man.”

He reached his hand out toward hers and Dolly shook it, still beaming up at Kabu. He nodded in return.

“I know now that you and your Pokémon will become a fantastic team, I’m glad I could battle you today. Let me give you a Fire Badge as proof that you’ve defeated me.”

He handed her a small gold Badge, setting it into her hands as he had the Sun Stone only a day before. He closed her hand over it and looked at her again.

“It is young Trainers like you who are responsible for keeping our culture alive, helping it to become something better. It is an honor to be a pillar for you to build on.”

Dolly’s lower lip quivered as she looked at the weathered Gym Leader before her. Before she could stop herself, she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around him. 

“Thank you, Mr. Kabu, for everything.”

He paused before hugging her in return, a small laugh escaping him. Their shirts stuck together from the sweat, and when she stepped back her hair was plastered against her face. 

They began walking together off the pitch, the crowd roaring around her. She grinned up at the audience, their cheers and cries of support echoing throughout the stadium. She could hear the commentator over the loudspeakers. 

“After a terrifying and dramatic exit last time, Challenger Dolly claims the win against the man of fire, Kabu! She certainly has claimed our attention! Can’t wait to see what happens next as she goes to face the silent boy of mystery, Allister!”

The cheers faded as she and Kabu exited through the tunnel, her grin still as wide as it was on the pitch. It never wavered as she waved goodbye to Kabu and stepped into the locker room.

She could practically ring out her hair by how much she was sweating.

“Bleh…” she grimaced as she peeled off her soaking Challenger’s uniform. 

Attempting to dry off the rest of her body was pointless, as her clothes were thoroughly drenched. She rolled her eyes and tugged her leggings on. She was grateful for the Shuckle tank her mum sneaked into her bag the day she left, so she didn’t have to pull on her normal long-sleeved shirt - the very thought of it made her feel suffocated. 

Dolly wadded her uniform into a smelly ball into her bag - better wash that _real_ well the next chance she got. She pulled her hair off her neck into a ponytail, a few droplets from her neck spitting onto the floor. It was off to Hammerlocke next, and she couldn’t wait for some fresh air. She exited the locker room and somebody nearly tackled her to the ground.

“You did it, Dolls!” Hop beamed from beside her ear. “I told you you could do it!”

“Hop! I’m literally so disgusting right now!” she yelped, peeling him off of her. “I’ve got sweat and dirt all over me!”

“You think I care about that? You just beat Kabu, the man of fire!” he said, still holding onto her shoulders. “That match had me right at the edge of my seat, you and Hudson made the whole thing look so easy!”

She couldn’t hold back her smile any longer. He was right - she did it! After such an embarrassing display only days before, after contemplating quitting since the day she began, after losing over half of her team on accident or by their choice, she was still pushing forward. The fire was renewed within her.

“I’m so proud of you,” he said again, gripping her shoulders. “I knew you could, I knew it from the start.” 

Then, he lifted his hands and shook them. 

“But yeah wow you are really sweaty.”

She shoved him with a laugh. Her cheeks started to hurt from smiling and talking and laughing so much as she and Hop made their way out of the Motostoke atrium. 

“With all the Badges we’ve earned ourselves, I reckon we should be all right even against the fierce Pokémon you find deep in the Wild Area,” Hop whistled as they trotted through Motostoke. “Let’s go find out for ourselves, race you there!"

He took off at a sprint and Dolly couldn’t contain her laugh as she broke into a sprint behind him. The fire and the life pulsed through her veins as she ran, as the wind blew through her hair. She felt like a bullet - fast and powerful and sure of her target. The mediocrity that had dried onto the surface of her skin was starting to flake off yet again, the scabs of it flinging behind her the faster she ran.

As they approached the entrance to Motostoke, Kabu, Nessa, and Milo saw them off. Kabu gave her a meaningful shoulder squeeze, she gave him another meaningful (and less sweaty) hug, and they waved goodbye as the two Trainers trotted down the steps.

Nessa tossed her hair behind her shoulder, watching as the two disappeared over the steps.

“What do you think, Kabu? Got some good ones here, huh?”

Kabu nodded as the yellow rays of the sun glowed over Motostoke and the Wild Area beyond. 

“He may be arrogant, she insecure, both naive and rough around the edges in their own ways, but I believe one day soon all of Galar will know them and their deeds.”

The pair tapped down the steps from Motostoke, taking in the air from the Wild Area.

“Hello again, Wild Area, my old friend!” Hop breathed, stretching his arms out to the fields before him. “I’ve come back to you even stronger than before!”

Hop turned to Dolly, eyes blazing.

“I know what I’m doing. I’ll be catching myself some amazing Pokémon to fill in the next page in the tale of my legend!” he said, pumping his fists. “Hammerlock is just off that way, our next checkpoint!”

“Don’t waste your efforts. It’s not like either of you would ever make it through the Gym Challenge, anyway,”

Dolly and Hop turned to see Bede approaching them. He sauntered to a stop, smirking and flipping his hair. 

“The Champion really must have been off his rocker to endorse the likes of you.”

He sized up both again. Dolly crossed her arms over herself, disgust curling in her throat as he looked her up and down. Maybe she should have worn her regular shirt. Hop shifted his weight to one side, blocking part of Dolly from the Challenger before them.

“I mean, one should be disqualified simply due to ethical principles, and the other because he’s so inadequate he can’t even throw a Poké Ball properly.” 

Hop let out a snort and crossed his arms.

“Rubbish. More like you don’t know enough to recognize greatness when you see it. My throws are the greatest, and my bro is the finest Champion the world has ever seen! I’m not gonna listen to you insulting him and my best mate,”

Suddenly Dolly’s fists clenched. She vaguely recalled hearing Bede’s name in the angry mob not so long ago. 

“You have no right to be talking about me,” Dolly said, stepping around Hop and jabbing a finger at Bede. “If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.”

Bede rolled his eyes again as Dolly fumed before him.

“How tiresome...I’ve nothing to say to a freak like you that you don’t already know. As for you,” he said as he turned to Hop. “I’ll battle you over there. Maybe that will help you finally understand just how weak _you_ are.”

“You’re on then," Hop said. "Dolls has wiped the floor with every Gym Leader, and I’m her greatest rival, so there’s no way you’re beating me.”

“All this prattle about Dolly and the Champion and whatnot... Do you not have anything of your own to show?” Bede sneered.

With another toss of his hair, he sauntered farther off. Hop tugged up his sleeves, a grin etching onto his face.

“I’ll show this wally my real skills in battle! So, see you later, Dolls! Let’s meet up in Hammerlocke when I’m through with him!”

Dolly watched as her best mate ran off into battle. She had every confidence that Hop would destroy that idiot. She continued down the hill beside Motostoke, taking in the view of the other half of the Wild Area before her. She tossed out her Pokémon to walk and talk beside her.

Disqualified due to ethical principles, huh? Dolly let out a sigh as she watched Sap perch atop Rosa’s head, her new Gloom head-flower providing a convenient platform for the Charjabug. Perhaps that ethics comment would become more common than she thought. Although Pokémon battles were common and celebrated in Galar, there were still many people who opposed them altogether. She knew it was common in other regions, too, as Trainers faced opposition whenever they passed through her hometown. She used to live by a Gym before she moved to Galar, and protesters often said it was unnatural, cruel, abusive. Pokémon should be liberated, they shouldn’t be forced to fight.

She could agree with them on that much - person or Pokémon, no one should be forced to do anything ever, but that certainly wasn’t going to stop just because people wanted it to. Many anti-Trainer protests cited scores of incidents in the media where Pokémon were abused, mistreated, pushed too far. Even though she never saw them in person, Boltund fighting rings were unfortunately common in Galar.

But if Pokémon were loved and cared for, what did it matter? If they chose to fight, just as boxers chose to box or wrestlers chose to wrestle, who could say that they shouldn’t do it? If there were regulations, just as there was the League, Gym Challenge, and Trainers were taught in school how to care for Pokmeon, then where was the argument?

She sighed as she thought back to Posey, to Fay, to Lacey. People like her fueled the argument, she supposed. Why risk it if she was so much more likely to misstep than other Trainers? She thought again of Kabu’s words, of the Sun Stone glittering in her pocket. She supposed not everyone would find her goal beautiful.

Her team continued through the Wild Area, catching and training and eating and sleeping. This bit of the Wild Area was much more rugged than the area going into Motostoke. She struggled through the landscape, and her legs often gave out through the drastic changes of heavy snow to howling gales. It was their fifth night, and Dolly was glad she spent the rest of her money on potions due to the higher levels of the wild Pokémon around. Her team was faring well, appreciating the diversity of challenge the Wild Area brought. They had all leveled up significantly, and Sap had finally evolved into a Vikavolt, thanks to a Thunder Stone Rosa tripped over.

Dolly was a bit worse for wear, though. The constant travel and change in weather were taxing, and the sixth morning she awoke with a painful dry cough. Potions and berries kept her team healthy, but she had never felt worse. Her mum may have packed a Shuckle tank, but a thermometer and cold medicine were woefully absent. She sniffled and shivered as they made their way across the bridges, rocks, and through the grass of the Wild Area. Even swallowing hurt.

“Stop being stubborn and get on the Mudsdale,” Jackson huffed, setting his hands on his hips.

“I’m fine,” she coughed, tucking her jacket collar up around her neck. “We’re almost there anyway. I can see-” Her sentence was interrupted by more coughing. “I can see Hammerlocke out that way.”

Jackson looked from his pitiful, shivering Trainer to the pitiful, faraway blip of a town.

“Yeah, if you’re going to think of an excuse, at least make it a better one.”

Sap let out a frustrated buzz. She shot little lightning bolts at Dolly’s feet until she stepped close enough to Hudson.

“How can you care for us when you cannot care for yourself?” Rosa agreed, slurping up a bit of drool. “Your small body is trembling with shivers.”

Hudson nuzzled into her hair and she finally sighed, coughed again, then nodded. She clambered up onto Hudson’s back and he carried her forward. Jackson led her small team in lieu of her leadership, and the four of them offered recommendations to each other in battles as they trudged toward Hammerlocke. After a few more hours, another level for each of them, rain started to speckle the earth.

Dusk was falling as the speckles of rain turned into a howling gale and torrent of water. After no luck in finding shelter for hours, Sap finally spotted a glowing lantern and a building’s silhouette in a rock outcropping. Dolly’s trembling fingers could barely hold onto Hudson's mane through the deluge. 

A bell tingled as Dolly stepped into the doorway. Hudson and Sap waited outside, too large to fit through the wooden frame, while Rosa and Jackson helped Dolly inside.

“Hey, anyone home?” Jackson called, looking about the room. 

The rain pounded on the roof as Jackson shook the water off his fur, Rosa doing the same and accidentally whipping herself in the face with her drool. The glass of the windows shuttered against the howling wind, vibrating the sturdy panes. The Gloom steadied her Trainer as Jackson stepped forward, looking up the wood-paneled walls for any other sign of life. His eyes trailed up the wooden staircase, along the railing, then flicked past door after door up on the exposed second floor. The ceilings were tall and arched, with antler-themed chandeliers casting a warm glow over the large cabin. 

He trotted into the main room, weaving around the handful of little tables that speckled the room. He made it up to the hearth, stepping onto the gray cobblestone and peering into the big black pot bubbling over the fire. 

“Someone’s gotta be here if they’re cooking this much soup…” he muttered to himself, making his way back to Dolly.

Jackson took Dolly by the hand and made their way to the bar. He and Rosa helped her onto a cushioned stool as she sniffled again.

“Rosa, stay here with Dolly, imma go find someone,” Jackson said, hopping off the barstool beside her.

“No need dear, I’m coming,” a voice called from the staircase.

An old woman toddled down the steps, her tall graying ponytail bouncing behind her. Her vibrant blue eyes flicked around, then a breath shot in through her teeth when she saw Dolly.

“Well you look like death. Get over by the fire,” the woman ordered, bustling about in a closet beside the staircase.

Dolly only nodded as she trudged to the handful of chairs and couches by the fire. She slumped into one of them, practically melting into the well-worn furniture. This couch was horrible for her posture, but she felt like a little egg in a bushy bird nest.

“Honey, take these blankets to your Trainer, please,” the woman said.

Rosa plodded up to Dolly, Dolly shaking off the pollen and a bit of Rosa’s drool from the fluffy blankets. She patted her Gloom on the head and coughed out a thanks.

“You’ve got more partners outside?” the woman asked Jackson. “Mateo! Take care of the Pokémon outside, please!”

She heard a thundering of footsteps tear from the upstairs and scramble down the steps. A shot of blue pushed the door open, the howling wind and rain hitting the entryway rug. Dolly heard another heavier set of footsteps come closer and the woman appeared before her, holding a cup.

“What’s your name, dear?” she asked, sitting in the armchair across from Dolly.

“Dolly,” she coughed out.

“Good to know, but I was talking to your Raboot,”

Dolly’s eyebrows furrowed. Jackson turned to look at Dolly, his brow furrowed as well. She only shrugged.

“Uh, it’s Jackson,” he muttered, eyeing the woman in the chair.

“Jackson, be a dear and warm this up for your Trainer. Arceus knows you can do it faster than our ancient microwave.”

Jackson hesitantly stepped forward and took the cup from her hands, still cautiously glancing from her face to the cup. 

“No need to look at me like I’ve got three heads," the woman chuckled. "I might be old, but I know I’m not _that_ ugly. Now heat up that cup for your Trainer before she drowns in her own phlegm.”

Dolly gratefully took the cup, the now-warm concoction already clearing her sinuses. She gulped it down, the hot liquid warming every inch of her insides. Her shivers immediately started to waver.

“Thank you. I hope you don’t mind us barging in like this,”

The woman waved a hand at her.

“This is a hostel, not sure if you could see the sign in that horrible weather. Taking in Trainers like you on nights like this is exactly what I’m here for.”

“Your accent sounds familiar,” Dolly croaked, sitting up taller on the couch. She sank right back to where she was. “Where are you from?”

“Where are _you_ from?” the woman repeated, eyeing Dolly. “What’s your favorite salad topping? What color are your long johns? Why’re you doing the Gym Challenge if you’ve got the Nuzlocke Curse? See, asking personal questions is rude, innit?”

Dolly’s eyes widened as she tried to sit up again.

“How did you…?”

“I might look like a hermit, but we’ve got cable.”

Dolly coughed out an 'oh,' the force of the cough racking her body. She supposed her yelling on the pitch at Kabu about the Nuzlocke Curse was probably broadcasted to all of Galar and not just around Motostoke. She sniffled and tucked the blanket around her tighter.

“Pitiful,” the woman tutted. She stood and ambled to the bar, gesturing for Dolly to follow. “You may need something stronger than that tea. You old enough to drink? Eh actually whatever, not like the police are gonna be barging through the door in this weather.”

“I am now, actually,” Dolly croaked as she struggled to stand from the couch that seemed adamant in swallowing her completely. Jackson had to tug at her arm to get her up as the woman clinked about behind the bar. Dolly finally took a seat in a barstool. “My eighteenth birthday might’ve been yesterday, now that I think about it.”

She lost track of the date when her phone died the second night they were in the Wild Area. She blamed herself for believing Jackson when he said he hadn’t stayed up all night the previous night playing games on it. She probably missed a call or two or a thousand from her mum. Maybe one from Hop, too. She sighed at the thought. He was certainly more fit than she was, but even he had limits. Hopefully he was making it fine through the Wild Area in this horrible storm. 

“Oh, well happy birthday,” the woman said, setting down another cup on the bar. “I can try to sing if you want, but don’t blame me if wild Pokémon smash through the windows to get me to stop,”

Dolly coughed out a laugh and reached for the cup. She took a sip, and coughed again, this time from the surprising strength of whatever was in this drink. It bit at her throat and burned as she swallowed. As she sipped, the blue figure appeared in the doorway again, pushing the door closed.

“Her other Pokémon are in the stables. All the Rapidash’s auras turned real pink when that Mudsdale walked in,” 

“Thank you, Mateo. Come greet our guests,”

A little Riolu bounded up to them and bowed.

“Hi I’m Mateo thanks for visiting our hostel where we do our best to make people and Pokémon our honored guest we have a free continental breakfast but that’s only if you actually pay your bill also I can take your bag if you want.”

Dolly coughed out another laugh.

“Thanks for the warm welcome, Mateo,”

Mateo’s eyes widened, then his head whipped to the woman.

“I thought only you could speak Pokémon? Is she a special nursery worker too?”

“There’s a couple of us around. Now take this Trainer’s things up to a room, then run along and play, dear. Why don’t you show this Raboot what you’ve been building upstairs?”

The Riolu nodded and turned to Jackson.

“Do you, um, do you like racing? I’ve been building hurdles upstairs. Want to help?”

“Holy shit, that’s ace!” Jackson shouted.

_“Jackson!”_

“Sorry, I mean, ‘yes please.’”

The Riolu and Raboot grabbed Dolly’s jacket and bag and bounded up the steps, already talking a mile a minute about other games they both liked to play. Dolly gave Rosa a loving pat, then her Gloom fumbled up the steps as well.

“So,” the woman continued after all the Pokémon had left. “You’ve managed to make it a little over halfway through the Wild Area. Normally I get some weary travelers, but not so many that are knocking on death’s door like you.”

“Yeah, thanks for the drinks,” Dolly said, looking down to the cup in her hand. Her chest didn’t feel so tight anymore, though she was sniffling more. Guess her sinuses were clearing.

“Are you hungry?”

Dolly nodded, tucking the blanket around her more snuggly as the woman grabbed two bowls from under the counter and headed to the hearth. She set a steaming bowl of soup in front of Dolly and stood across from her again, dipping a spoon into her own bowl.

“You taking care of yourself out there?” the woman asked through a mouthful of soup. “Surprised someone of your size didn’t get blown away by the wind. How does your chest feel? Fingers, arms? I know it’s been a while, but has the tingling subsided?”

“I’m not really tingly, I’ve probably got a fever, though,” Dolly said as her brow furrowed. 

“I’m not talking about your chest cold, I’m talking about the Nuzlocke Curse. I assume you’ve lost team members by now, I’m almost wondering if that’s half the cause of your illness here. Messes with your immune system, the antibodies in your blood.”

Dolly shook her head.

“No, it’s uh, it’s been a bit since the last one…I thought no one else knew about the Curse?”

“There’s a lot of things I don’t know, but there are a lot of things I do know," the woman shrugged. "Like, for one thing, if you rub right here in the crick of your elbow, the tingling subsides quicker when you try to catch another Pokémon on a route. Not as effective when one dies, but it helps a bit.”

Dolly swirled her spoon around in her bowl as the woman fussed about behind the bar. The rain spattered on the roof and a quiet thunder rumbled in the distance. She was much more content to listen to the storm now that her and her Pokémon were safe, warm, and dry. Her mind flicked to Hop again. Hopefully there were caves or something further into the Wild Area, or perhaps he had already made it to Hammerlocke. If he were here in this hostel, safely curled up on a couch, or chatting here with her as the thunder rumbled outside, that would be even better. Dolly hummed out a sigh and spooned the soup into her mouth.

“You know how to break it?”

Dolly’s eyes shot up. 

“I assume that’s why you’re out here, to break the Curse? Trying to beat the Champion, right?”

Dolly’s brows furrowed, scanning the face of this woman. Her blue eyes bore into Dolly’s, as if only by looking at her this woman had Dolly completely figured out. Even from behind her cup and bowl and beneath her thick blanket, Dolly had rarely ever felt this exposed.

“I don’t know how to break the Curse, I just...I like battling. I was assuming I would figure it out along the way.”

The woman barked out a laugh.

“Ballsy! I like you, kid. Just trudging through the country’s hardest challenge ‘to see what happens.’ Well let me tell ya, you’re on the right track.”

“What do you mean?”

“You do _want_ to break it, yeah?"

“Well yeah, but, Kabu’s the only other one I know who knows someone who had it, and he said-”

“And this is what I’m saying,” the woman continued. “That’s almost always how it goes: beat the Champion, find the legendary Pokémon, break the Curse. Sometimes not _always_ in that order, but you know. Just trust me, kid.”

Dolly stared at her drink, taking in her words. She watched as a droplet of condensation darkened the base of the glass and seeped into the wood of the bar.

“Beat the Champion, break the Curse,” Dolly whispered. If she grew strong enough to beat Leon, then would she be strong enough to find whoever that voice in the Slumbering Weald belonged to? 

“How do you know so much?” Dolly asked, sipping at her drink again as she spun back and forth on the barstool. “The Nuzlocke Curse has just barely been brought to light, even academics barely know anything about it. I’ve only met two other people who knew about it, and that’s Kabu and my friend Sonia.”

“Eh, well now you’ve met three. When you’ve been around as long as me, when you’ve met as many people as I have, you pick up some stuff. You’ve got a lot to learn, kid.”

Dolly only stared as the woman looked into her eyes. Again, she felt like her entire soul was laid bare.

“Then when you break the Curse, you can teach others what I’m teaching you. Learn what you can, teach others what you know, beat the Champion, break the Curse. Easy as that…” she said. Then, she quietly added, “Shield of Galar.”

Dolly’s eyes grew wide, her breath catching in her throat.

“What did you...what did you just say?”

“I said ‘sealed with valor,’” she said, clinking a bottle on the table. 

She turned the label towards Dolly. It read _’Sealed with valor for the hero in you!’_

“Some brands can be so dramatic, don’t you think?”

Dolly held the bottle in her hands, turning it over. Something about this woman was making Dolly curious. She realized she had never even introduced herself. When Dolly opened her mouth again, she was stopped with a wave.

“What’d I say about so many questions? You ought to get to bed before you keel over. Finish your dinner, then head on upstairs, first door on your left. I’ll heal up your Pokémon for you and I’ll watch those two rascals.”

As if on cue a loud thud came from upstairs and a burst of laughter.

Dolly couldn’t help but grin as a Raboot and Riolu came tripping down the stairs, already pushing and laughing at one another as they ran around the tables. She slurped down the rest of the soup, waved goodnight to them all, and headed up the stairs.


	10. The Hammerlocke Vault

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Sap (Vikavolt), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Mateo (Riolu), Dia (Meowstic)

**Chapter 10 -The Hammerlocke Vault**

If Dolly thought Motostoke was impressive, it was nothing compared to the grandeur of Hammerlocke. The next Gym was technically in a town called Stow-on-Side, but this was quite the elaborate detour. 

Tall walls and houses of purple bricks elegantly lined the main street as Dolly walked through, passing by just as many elegant pedestrians. Golden roofs glittered in the midday sun, shining brilliantly over the town - even the fencing was painted with a shimmering gold sheen. Dolly grinned as she plodded along, counting the little torches that flickered against the dark bricks. It was as if the entire city were built as one great caste, with Hammerlocke Stadium as the head. That was now officially the tallest building she’d ever seen, and the first building she’d ever seen to have a crown at the top. 

As she stepped through the streets, her mind drifted back to her strange encounter with the hostel owner. How did she know so much about Pokémon, about her Curse? Did she know someone like Kabu did? But what about the bit of pushing into the crease of her elbow…? Maybe she was just being messed with. People tended to do that. 

She felt around in her pocket for her Sun Stone, which had now become a habit. She only fiddled with loose string, however, as Rosa had snuck into her room in the middle of the night and used it to evolve.

“But Dolly, you did not see the way they were looking at him!” Rosa had said, exasperatingly trying to defend her actions to the furious Trainer before her. “I had to be enrapturing and that was impossible when every time I spoke I spit drool at him!”

“I don’t care if a billion Rapidash were batting their eyelashes at Hudson, that Sun Stone was from Kabu! He gave it to me,” she had yelled. “It was a symbol that I’m not completely horrible and useless!”

Rosa’s shoulders slumped at her words. Dolly let out another huff and turned, fiddling with the zipper on her jacket. 

“You’re not useless, my Dolly. Far from it. Do you not see the powerful team you have built up and encouraged?”

Dolly let out a sigh, turning back to Rosa.

“I didn’t do a good enough job at encouraging you, then. Even as a Gloom, your spirit is what is so captivating about you, Rosa, it’s your passion and your love for the world. I’m sad that you can see such beautiful qualities in us and not in yourself. It doesn’t matter if you drooled all the time as a Gloom, or even if you drooled all the time now. None of us care what you look like.”

Rosa fiddled with the leaf that draped from the flower petal on her head.

“That’s what Jackson and Hudson both said, too…”

Dolly sighed again, watching her Bellossom stare so guiltily at the floor. Perhaps her Sun Stone reminder was still standing right in front of her. She smiled, scooped Rosa up, and gave her a squeeze.

“You do smell a lot better now, though. But even if you didn’t, we would all still love you the same.”

Rosa hummed, then peppered Dolly’s face with kisses. After a flustered retort and spitting out a few flower petals, Dolly and Rosa headed down the hostel steps and out into the Wild Area. 

Hudson and Mateo were waiting for them, as the little Riolu was now part of the team. Dolly was told in secret that a Trainer never came back for their egg, and Mateo had been at the hostel ever since. It was ‘high time he flew the coop,’ the hostel owner had said, then she told her ‘happy birthday, or whatever.’

“I am sorry, Hudson,” Rosa sighed as they started out onto the dirt path. “I should not have bombarded your Rapidash friends with accusations and insults.”

“I told you I didn’t care about those frilly Rapidash flinging their manes everywhere, I just wanted some shut eye," Hudson said. "You could be a Gloom, or Vileplume, or even a Stunfisk or something for the rest of eternity, and that still wouldn’t matter to us...matter to me.”

Rosa let out a quiet sigh as she looked to Hudson. 

“...Really?”

He offered her a soft smile and nodded. Rosa looked to the ground and smiled as well, bashfully twirling her grass skirt.

“Hey Mr. Mudsdale, are you two married?” Mateo had asked. “I’m super good at reading auras and yours is _reeeaaally_ pink.”

Hudson's eyes widened as Rosa’s hand shot to her mouth.

“Don’t you...don’t you and Jackson have rocks to eat or something…?” Hudson grumbled, turning his face away from them.

Rosa perked up considerably after that.

Dolly chuckled at the thought as she shook her head back to the present. She pulled out her town map. This city may have well been twice the size of Motostoke, and she even had a hard time maneuvering through there. As she approached Hammerlock Stadium, she smiled when she saw Leon and his Charizard waving at them.

“Dolly! It seems you’re doing well collecting Gym Badges,” he grinned, meeting her on the sidewalk. “Guess whatever Kabu told you perked you right back up, huh? But Hop...did something happen with him?”

“What do you mean?”

Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together. She hadn’t seen Hop since after they left Motostoke - which was over a week ago, now. When Dolly first came into Hammerlocke, she unfortunately ran into Bede right before entering the city gates. He had said ‘he doubted Hop would be coming after such a humiliating defeat, and he was sure he would never again look the Champion in the eye.’ Then he flipped his stupid hair and shoved her to the side to get up the steps.

“He was acting really odd when I ran into him," Leon huffed as he crossed his arms. "He took one look at me and immediately was like, ‘I’m so sorry, Lee!’ It might be the first time I've heard him apologize for anything, and I have no idea what it was for! Maybe he’s feeling down because he’s had some hard losses in battle?”

“I know he lost to that Challenger Bede.”

Leon looked farther off and let out a sigh.

“At least I’ve got you to keep an eye on him. You’ll look out for Hop, won’t you?”

“Absolutely, of course,” Dolly nodded. He’d been there a thousand times for her, of course she would return the favor for her best friend.

“Thanks Dolly,” he said, his shoulders relaxing. “I’ve got to meet with the chairman soon, but you should stop and say hello to Raihan while you’re here. He’s the greatest rival I’ve got and the final hurdle you’ll have to face in the Gym Challenge. He should still be around the vault on the way to Route 6.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you later, Leon,” Dolly said as she hiked her bag up on her shoulders. She started to turn, but paused when Leon cleared his throat.

“But something else about Raihan, Dolly,” Leon added, suddenly stern. “He’s got a bit of a… reputation... with women, so watch out for him, ‘k? Don’t go messing around with him, even if you really want to. He’s a great guy, but he’s got some bad habits. He’s talked about you before, so keep an eye out, yeah?”

“Uh, sure?” Dolly said. 

Who’s talked about her before? Mess around how? Like, in mud or something? She didn’t really feel like wasting any time in mud now that she was more determined in her Gym Challenge.

Dolly meandered through Hammerlocke, looking for this supposed vault and the supposed messy Gym Leader Raihan. Her head swiveled about, keeping her eyes peeled for anyone who looked a bit more interesting than the average pedestrian.

And she found him, leaning against large wooden doors, tapping on his phone. Woah. That was literally the tallest man she had ever seen. He seemed hygienic enough, though, not sure what Leon was going on about. When she approached he glanced up to her. Well, down to her.

“Hi, I’m Challenger Dolly. I’m supposed to be meeting you here?” she asked, hiking up her bag. Even with him leaning against the doors, she barely came up to his chin.

“ _You’re_ one of the Gym Challengers Leon endorsed?” Raihan asked incredulously, looking down at Dolly. “You’re so small!”

What? What kind of first impression was that? 

Raihan squatted down so he was eye-level with Dolly.

“I feel like a strong gust of wind could push you over.”

Well even if that _was_ a true statement, he didn’t see her asking how the weather was up there. Wasn’t this guy the last Gym Leader? Shouldn’t he himself be more important looking and not wearing a stupid headband? 

“You seemed like a regular height in your pictures. Is that why they call you Dolly? Because you look like a little doll?”

Dolly looked behind her, around her. Was this, like, some sort of meme? Was his Rotom phone recording her somewhere? She looked back to him. 

“Um. No. That’s my name.”

Raihan stood back to his full height, the top of her head now barely making it to his collarbone. 

“Is that short for something cute?”

“Dolores.”

He hooked his hands behind his head and pursed his lips. 

“Yeah I can see why you go by Dolly, then. Anyway, I’m Raihan.”

If he thought Dolores was a weird name, she couldn’t wait for him to meet the other Challenger Leon endorsed.

“Um, hi Raihan. Can I see the vault?”

“Ah, so you’re here to see our treasures, are you?” Raihan grinned. “Gaining a better understanding of Pokémon by studying history certainly isn’t a bad idea. Follow me, why don’t you?”

Dolly followed the Gym Leader into the vault. She gazed around at the bricks and the single trophy case. Was this it? Not very impressive…

“Now, on you go!” Raihan said. “If it’s the vault you want, it’s up those stairs there. That girl’s up there, too. You know. Miss Clever Clogs.”

Clever clogs? What was this guy talking about? So far Gym Leader Raihan and his introduction to the vault was a solid two out of five stars. 

She turned to leave, only to pause as he cleared his throat. When she turned back to him, he had stepped much closer, his full height more apparent. A crooked grin appeared on his face as he leaned toward her.

“I’ll even spare you one of my League cards,” he said, his bright blue eyes boring into hers.

“Uh, thanks,” she muttered, plucking it from his hand. 

She paused when she noticed the sheer size of his hand compared to hers - it could probably span the entire width of her back. She glanced back up to him. He did have some pretty intense eyes, too, and the way he was looking at her was almost animalistic. Her heart kicked as she watched his half-lidded eyes dart about her face.

She made her way up the thin stairwell, fiddling with the card in her hand. What was with everyone giving her their League cards? What was she even supposed to do with them? She glanced at Raihan's card in her hands. She’d seen his League card before online somewhere but what was different was the additional scrawl at the bottom. Limited edition, maybe? She peered closer and felt the heat rise to her cheeks when she noticed they weren’t letters, but numbers. A phone number.

Perhaps she misunderstood what Leon was warning her about. She shoved it into her pocket and continued up the steps.

After trotting up a few more flights of stairs, Dolly pushed her way into a cylindrical purple-bricked tower. She spotted Sonia standing in the middle, gazing at four massive tapestries hung on the walls. The sun beamed into the room, little dust specks floating about the weavings before her.

Was _this_ the vault? She was expecting some cool crowns or priceless jewels or a statue made of gold or something, but instead there were just four carpets hanging on the walls. This was just as lame as that first room.

Sonia snorted at Dolly’s lack-of-awe, joking about how fine art was lost on the younger generations. She then delved into the history of the tapestries, explaining more about her research on the Darkest Day and how it was odd to see two young heroes instead of just one like they saw in Motostoke. Dolly nodded, pretended to be interested by letting out a few well-timed ‘huh’s, and fiddled with Raihan’s League card in her pocket.

Why’d he write his number on it? The last time a guy gave her his number was on a dare after her last boyfriend broke up with her. Then he had run back to his group of friends to only record her reaction and post it on their social media later. But Raihan wouldn’t do that, right? Leon said he was a good guy. He did have quite the social media following, though.

“Thanks for letting me bounce some ideas off you,” Sonia smiled. “I think I’ve got some theories now.”

Dolly shook her head into focus.

“Oh, uh, yeah anytime.”

“And another reason I’m glad you came up here,” Sonia said, setting an old strip of newspaper in her hand. “I found this at the library the other day. It’s an article about another region’s old Champion.”

Dolly peered at the picture and words on the yellowing strip of paper. A young girl was smiling on it, her tall dark ponytail slung behind her shoulder. She had a hand on her hip, and her other hand slung around a Samurott.

“Apparently this girl blew threw the Gyms in her region, claimed the Champion title, then disappeared. The article talks about how they never knew if she left on her own or was so unpopular she was bullied out of the country.”

Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together. “Why would she be bullied out? She seems like a normal girl. Was she too young to be Champion?”

“The Champion after her was even younger, but that’s what I was trying to find out, too," Sonia said as she shook her head. "There’s so little information about this girl, but I finally found this article. It says that she had a strange condition, and when the region found out she wasn’t simply releasing her Pokémon throughout her Gym battles, but they kept ‘mysteriously disappearing,’ everyone got suspicious. Once she became Champion, she didn't ‘release’ or ‘get rid of’ any Pokémon, but a journalist did a piece on her rise to fame - particularly the mysterious disappearances before she became Champion. The story blew up around the region and a lot of people called for her dismissal. The League of the region said she left for personal reasons, but no one really believed them.”

Dolly’s eyes skimmed through the article as Sonia spoke, then looked back up to the girl smiling with her Samurott. Something about her seemed familiar, like she had seen that mischievous smirk and tall ponytail somewhere before. Her mind flashed to the hostel owner.

“I’m almost wondering if she had the Nuzlocke Curse,” Sonia said, twirling her hair around her finger. “If that’s what could explain the ‘mysterious disappearances.’ I can imagine she had Pokémon faint during her time as Champion, so maybe not though. Anyway, that’s all I could find. Thought you would think it was interesting.”

“Thanks Sonia,” Dolly said, and delicately folded the article into her pocket. 

“Well, I’m going to research these tapestries a tad more, but you have your Gym Challenge, right? I’m excited to see more of your wins,” she grinned.

“Yeah, and I won’t get those wins sitting in a dusty room like this,” Dolly said. She waved goodbye to Sonia and trotted back down to the main floor.

Did that girl really have the Nuzlocke Curse like Sonia predicted? If those mysterious disappearances were her Pokémon dying, that would correspond to what that hostel owner said. That maybe she became the Champion, broke her Curse, and the symptoms were obsolete. Maybe she could go back to the hostel in the Wild Area and show that old woman this article. Although she never learned her name, Dolly had a faint suspicion it matched the name in this strip of newspaper.

“Did you like the vault?”

Dolly’s heart skipped as she saw Raihan waiting for her at the end of the stairs, hands held lightly behind his back.

Her mind flashed to the numbers on the card he gave her. She hesitated as she stepped down through the thin stairwell, wondering if he would move aside for her. He didn’t, so she stepped down as far as she could. Even standing two steps above him she wasn’t as tall as him.

“Not too many pieces up there, but those tapestries are pretty important to Galar’s history. They tell of the heroes of the Galar region’s past. I suppose if we’ve got any modern hero, it’d have to be our Champion, Leon.”

A hero? That seemed a bit much. She supposed Leon was the most powerful Pokémon Trainer in Galar, but she would picture a hero wearing armor or something. He did wear a cape at least. And a really tight shirt.

“I guess,” Dolly said, setting her hands in her pockets. “I feel like the hero of Galar would know how to chew with his mouth closed, though.”

“You noticed that too?!” Raihan said, eyes wide. Then he laughed and leaned against the wall beside them. “Okay so it’s not just me, I swear no one believes me when I tell them that.”

Dolly cautiously told Raihan about how Leon sucked at charades, and he told her about how he watched Leon eat sand once. They eased into conversation just as Dolly eased her arm against the railing of the thin stairwell, mirroring how Raihan stood. Their conversation turned to the tapestries in the vault again, and Dolly was certainly much more interested when this information was coming from Raihan. Her train of thought jolted when Raihan leaned his other arm on the wall by her head.

“Well, as fascinating as you are, Dolly, I can’t keep you to myself for _too_ long,” Raihan grinned. “Your goal is to defeat that superstar Leon. So, go conquer Route 6 and train yourself up along the way,”

Suddenly, as soon as she motioned to leave, he leaned his head in slightly.

“And I’m sure you hear this a lot, but you have beautiful eyes.”

“Oh,” Dolly said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as her cheeks grew warmer. “Um, thanks.” 

She did not hear that a lot, but she had to admit, hearing it from someone like him, who was way out of her league, made her blush. She bit back a smile as she cautiously looked back up at him.

Perhaps she was too quick to judge, and Raihan and his introduction to the vault was actually a three out of five stars.

“Take good care of that League card,” he said quietly as she stepped down another stair. “That one was just for you.”

As he finished, his eyes darted from her eyes downward and her face immediately grew warmer. He glanced to her eyes again, then winked.

The fresh air seemed to clear her head and Dolly finally started toward Route 6, shaking her arms and legs as if to shake off how she felt when Raihan looked at her.


	11. Stone Crowns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's officially been a month of posting!! I hope you all are enjoying the story. Just sending another note of thanks to all of you, I truly appreciate the views, comments, kudos, bookmarks, etc. So, thanks for all that, and thanks so so much for reading :) - missusk
> 
> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Sap (Vikavolt), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Mateo (Riolu), Dia (Meowstic)

**Chapter 11 - Stone Crowns**

“What happened with Bede, Hop? You don’t seem like yourself...” 

She didn’t like this one bit. Hop had never been so downcast, with a crease in his brow the entire time she was with him in Stow-on-Side. Even when she pointed out a child wearing a Bronzong as a hat, he barely cracked a smile. 

He had asked her to battle him, that maybe trying all kinds of different things against her would help him figure out what worked. Then, he looked at the ground, still avoiding her gaze - he wasn’t even looking at her. What could that idiot Bede have done to cause her energetic, sunshine-y best friend glare at the ground like that? 

When he didn’t respond, Dolly sighed again. What he could use was a win against his rival, she was sure that would cheer him up. But, as much as she would like to see Hop smile again, that wasn’t something she could give him. Dolly reached out to her friend, only to have him jerk his arm away, and her eyebrows pulled together. He had never done that before.

"Hop...?”

He clenched his jaw before scuffing his shoe on the ground. 

“Bede really wiped the floor with me when we battled,” he finally said. “And don’t get me wrong, I can take a loss. Battling means you’ve got to lose sometimes,”

Hop looked into the sky, letting out a downcast sigh. 

“But he said I was dragging Lee’s good name through the mud and making yours even worse, being so rubbish as I was. I just can’t get those words out of my head! If I’m weak, then people’ll think Lee’s weak too. They’ll think the Champion is useless because his little brother is useless... and that's just another reason for Lee to not care about me.” 

Dolly’s heart dropped at the words. She let out half a breath as her friend glared at the sky. 

“Hop, Leon cares-”

“Let’s just battle. Please? An all-out battle with my true rival will help get my head on straight.”

“Well, alright,” Dolly said, brow still furrowed. 

They found their way to the center of the plaza, a few onlookers already taking their seats to watch the two Gym Challengers battle. The sun beat down overhead, its harsh light enveloping the dusty town of Stow-on-Side. The rays glinted on Hop’s Poké Ball, then he tossed it out.

It took Dolly a moment to register who this new Pokémon was, because they certainly weren’t his trusty Wooloo. Before her stood a Cramorant, staring blankly ahead. Throughout their battle she was continuously surprised at who Hop tossed out, each throw adding to the furrow in his brow. A Cramorant, a Silicobra, a Toxel. Where was the rest of his team? Where was Wooloo? The only one that was consistent was Thwakey. 

Her heart sank each time his Pokémon hit the ground, as each time his shoulders grew more and more tense. As much as it hurt her to do it, she couldn’t risk her own Pokémon’s health, so she went as all out as she could.

Thwakey returned to his Poké Ball, and their battle was finished. The handful of onlookers clapped and started off to continue with their days, walking around Hop as he stood there, shoulders still tense, glaring at the ground. The dust from their battle had settled, though it rose again when he kicked at the ground.

“My strategy goes right to pot when I’ve got all these bad thoughts running through my head,” he growled.

Dolly walked up to him, tucked her hands into her pockets, and begrudgingly resisted the overwhelming urge to reach out to him.

“I tried switching my team members in and out to max out their potential in every match-up but...we just couldn’t get it together somehow...maybe that’s why I'm still so weak,” he said as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Lee really is the greatest Trainer, and I don’t want people laughing at him all because his little brother is rubbish.”

Then, Dolly flinched as he tore his hand through his hair in exasperation. 

“It’s not enough! I’ve got to try harder! And harder and harder ‘till no one’s laughing!” he said, then he finally looked at her. “I’m off mate, off to find the Pokémon I can really draw the strength out of.” 

Hop turned, not allowing Dolly another chance to speak. She watched him as he trudged down the dirt path, kicking a few rocks along the way and she let out a breath, her heart leaving with him. Hudson was still out from their match and nudged her shoulder with his head.

“Leave him be,” he said. She gave him a pat and sighed.

“I’m just worried about him,” she said, stroking his mane. “I’ve never seen him like this before.”

Hudson lifted his head and let out a sigh as well. “The lad’s certainly been knocked down a few pegs, perhaps it’ll be good for him to think some things through.”

“I know, but he’s always been there for me every time I’ve been upset. He would just hug me and tell me everything's okay, then everything would be okay.”

“You’re only remembering the times he was there - there have been plenty of times that you’ve needed time to yourself. People all work through things differently, Dolly, and you can’t be there for everyone all the time,” he said. “Sometimes people need to figure things out for themselves.”

She sighed again and nodded solemnly, patting his nose. That wasn’t an answer she liked. Did Hudson even see how Hop was glaring at the ground? How angry he was? Did Hudson even notice how he barely looked at her or how he flinched away when she tried to comfort him? She let out another sigh. No, that wasn’t an answer she liked, but it was one she would have to try to understand.

She made her way to the Pokémon Center, healed up, and headed back to the Gym. Her eyes darted around, watching for that head of purple hair. The worry was slowly squeezing at her heart when she remembered back to when he yanked his arm away. Hop loved hugs and physical affection. Never in her life had he yanked himself away from her like that. Never in her life had she heard him say things like that. And what he said about Leon not caring about him… that couldn’t be right, she must have misheard. There was no one in the world that Leon cared about more than Hop.

Her worry for Hop had to take a back seat as she gazed up at the stadium looming before her. The dark purple coloring throbbed against the orange background of the cliffs and Dolly took out her ring of Badges, clutching it in her fist. 

“Here goes number five,” she breathed, stepping through the double doors of the Ghost Gym.

She had every intention to elegantly and gracefully make her way through the Gym to make up for her blunders in Motostoke, but in all reality, it pretty much sucked this time too.

She nearly jumped out of her skin countless times thanks to the horrifying Ghost Pokémon coming out from the walls. After a barrage of battles, her blood pressure spiking, and a hearty dose of vertigo, Dolly stumbled out of the Stow-on-Side Gym with the Ghost Badge and her head still spinning. 

“Ugh, that was the worst Gym mission they could have plotted… Allister is one demented child,” she muttered to herself.

Her heart was still racing from that nightmarish Gengar, her memory was infiltrated by its huge, horrible mouth, that G-Max Terror… she shuddered at the thought. She probably wouldn’t be able to sleep later that night.

It was off to the Pokémon Center, then through the forest titled ‘Glimwood Tangle,’ then to the village of Ballonlea. Dolly’s heart kicked at the thought. It was said there were plenty of Psychic and Fairy-type Pokémon in the forest, and she was itching to catch one. Her team already had some good variety, but she didn’t know how long Dia, her new Meowstic, wanted to stick around. Although it was common for Meowstic to be aloof, it was taking longer than Dolly hoped for her to get along with the rest of her team members... Rosa and Jackson in particular.

Dolly trotted down the steps, focusing on not tumbling down, because if she tumbled down these steps her eyesight would be permanently spinning, and she’d probably lose her lunch...again. She grimaced as she thought about how that less-than-graceful moment was broadcast across all of Galar. Spinning round and round like a bloody ping pong ball...they had to pause the mission for a while to clean up the platforms. She hoped it wasn’t on repeat in slow-motion, at least... The media did a strangely good job of following her every mistake, so that hope faded as quickly as it came.

The marketplace was just as lively as it was the day she arrived in Stow-on-Side. People and merchants bustled about, and she had to side-step past a few Maractus carrying bundles of goods. Music from a guitar drifted through the air and she tossed a few coins into the case of a Toxtricity as she stopped to stock up on supplies. Her eyes wandered over the colorful textiles, glittering jewelry, and ripe fruits that laid out over the tables and stalls of the market. After buying a basket-full of roasted Pomeg berries, she popped one into her mouth as she let Jackson and Mateo out of their Poké Balls to enjoy the sunshine with her.

“Oh man, that last Gym battle was so awesome!” Jackson enthused.

“Yeah, probably because _you’re_ so awesome!” Mateo said, pumping his fists.

“What’re you talking about _I’m_ awesome, _you’re_ awesome! Let’s race!”

“What, you hungry? ‘Cuz you’re about to eat my dust!”

“Not if I eat it first!”

“Wha-? Hey, that’s cheating!” Mateo yelped as Jackson ran behind Dolly’s legs.

Dolly rolled her eyes at her two Pokémon shoving at each other at her feet. Her mind drifted to Hop as she watched them race around the streets, kicking stones back and forth to one another, weaving through the legs of the people walking through the marketplace. He was the next scheduled Challenger after her, but she hadn’t seen him sign in after her battle. Her head was over a toilet for a while though, to be fair. 

“Not too far, lads!” she yelled as she started to lose track of their weaving. She could hear the laughter of her Raboot and Riolu echo through the bustling streets and she smiled to herself. She was happy to see Jackson have someone to play and let some energy out with. Mateo was a good addition to the team, and perhaps he could teach her Raboot some manners.

After haggling for new supplies, more roasted Pomeg berries, and shelling out some coins for a bandana for Mateo that he ‘ _reeaally’_ liked, Dolly started back up the steps to the Gym, doing her best to corral her two most rambunctious Pokémon. It was always a challenge getting them to calm down, but they needed to get their energy out before the forest. No way she was going to let them run around with a bunch of tricky Fairy-type Pokémon out and about in the maze of a forest. As she reached the top of the steps, a Yamper darted about her feet.

“Hi Sonia, fancy seeing you here,” Dolly grinned as the tall red head trotted up to her.

“Looks like my Yamper really likes you, huh?” Sonia replied. “I was actually just about to go looking for you, glad you’re here. Care to come look at some ruins with me? I’m sure you raced right into the Gym without even taking a second to think about the historical landmarks here,” 

Sonia squinted her eyes playfully, and Dolly let out a sheepish laugh and a shrug.

“Gotta stay consistent for the fans,” 

“You tend to have surprisingly sharp insight, so I was wondering what you might think when you see the ruins.”

The pair started heading up the steps next to the Gym when the ground started to shake. At first it was only faint tremors, but then an explosive crash came from the top of the stairs. Dolly stumbled into Sonia, the both of them barely catching their footing.

“What in the world was that?!” Sonia gasped. “Let’s have a look!”

Dolly followed Sonia as she rushed up the steps, taking them two at a time. They had to weave around other people gripping onto the railing of the stairs when the ground shook again. A booming Pokémon call trumpeted through the air, and Dolly winced as the noise cut against her eardrums. When they finally reached the top, they were met with Bede and a huge Pokémon beside him.

That certainly didn’t look like his normal dainty Psychic-types, Dolly thought, as she gazed upon the massive Copperajah. Its turquoise body surged forward, the sun glinting off of the steel ridges on its trunk.

“Destroy it! Destroy it all! We’re going to find those Wishing Stars!” Bede called, motioning the Copperajah forward. 

It trumpeted loudly, shaking the ground again. Sonia and Dolly rushed forward, stumbling as the Copperajah smashed against the wall, and Sonia gasped. 

“That’s the mural!”

Dolly’s eyes widened as the Copperajah swung its trunk against the colorful painting on the rock. She surged forward as the ground shook again. 

“Bede! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Bede turned, and smirked upon seeing her. 

“Oh my,” he said, holding his hand up to pause the Copperajah. “You again…How’s your Eevee doing?”

“Shut up,” Dolly growled, her fists clenching. “What’re you shaking the whole earth for? You’re destroying a historical landmark!”

Bede ignored her and folded his arms over his chest.

“So, you think you can start collecting Wishing Stars now and get in the chairman’s favor? Think that you can charm him into keeping you in the Gym Challenge? That’s the way of things, is it? I see. So, you do have some cunning in you. But I won’t have it! I won’t allow anyone to stand in my way!”

Suddenly Dolly was thrown into battle. Bede had thrown out his Psychic-type Duosion, and Dolly tossed out her own Poké Ball. So that Copperajah wasn’t his? Where did he get it from?

As the Duosion attacked with a powerful Psybeam, Dolly’s mind was catapulted back to her last battle with Bede. The glittering gemstones that fell to the floor, the silky dark sand from the mine, those images tore through her mind, behind her eyelids, as Duosion unleashed another attack. She opened her eyes again as the colorful rocks from the mural fell around them, the light orange sand wafting through the battlefield.

Her Vikavolt darted about, taking down each of Bede’s Pokémon with ease. Dolly had to focus, she had to shake out the thoughts that were slowly starting to swarm.

She should have used her Vikavolt last time. 

She knew about the type advantage, and she used Posey anyway. 

She used Posey and then Posey died.

She was a careless Trainer.

She was a monster.

She was a murderer.

Sap defeated Bede’s Gothorita, and then he threw out his next Pokémon.

It was Ponyta.

Dolly’s mind flashed again to the shock of light that burst around the mine, flashed back to how it shattered the sapphires off the walls as Posey hit the ground. Sap darted forward, attacking and dodging as the Ponyta tried to do the same to her. After another few hits, the Ponyta was defeated, and it was like Dolly could breathe again.

Her hands were shaking as Sap battled through Bede’s final Pokémon, then she heaved out a sigh when his Hattrem hit the ground. She returned Sap to her Poké Ball, and Bede took a step back as they heard a thundering of footsteps behind them. Dolly turned to see Rose, Oleana, and a few League staff rushing up behind them.

Dolly stood aside and watched as they went back and forth, Rose and Oleana unpleasantly calm as Bede spit insults at them. Her eyes widened when Rose called for his dismissal from the Gym Challenge.

“You...you must be joking, right? You’re disqualifying me from the Gym Challenge?” Bede whispered. “But you’re the one who endorsed me! There are a hundred different ways we could sort this out, why are you choosing the worst possible option?!”

Then, he pointed to Dolly. 

“And what about _her?!_ She’s literally killing Pokémon, and you’re disqualifying _me_ for trying to support you?”

“We will decide what to do with you later. For now, you will return to Hammerlocke,” Rose sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

After another barrage of insults, Bede was escorted away from the ruins.

It all happened so quickly. One second Bede was before her, a strong rival in her Gym Challenge, and now he wasn’t. Rose turned to her and Sonia as they both stood in shock at the scene before them. 

“Terrible shame, all this," Rose said. "An absolute disaster. I never wish to see us lose Challengers for this sort of reason. Yet we do what we must do to keep things fair and sportsmanlike. And you, Dolly,”

Dolly’s eyes shot to Rose’s.

“Don’t worry about what Bede said. Although we weren’t aware of your condition until recently, the board has discussed it, and the majority ruled in favor of allowing you to continue your Challenge.”

Dolly nodded, still thinking of Bede being so unceremoniously carted away. What would he do now? Even though he was a pain in the neck, even she wouldn’t know what to do if she was disqualified. It was just one incident, too, and if Bede was being honest about helping Rose, why wouldn’t he give him another chance?

“And I must say I am excited to see how you and Challenger Hop will fare - both of the Challengers Leon endorsed are kicking up quite a storm,” he said with a charming smile. 

Dolly nodded politely at his words, though something seemed to be hiding behind his light green eyes. Perhaps Rose wasn’t everything she thought he was. He excused himself and Sonia turned back to Dolly, her brows knitted together. 

“I thought you had a huge crush on Rose?" Sonia said. "Not like you’re ever real elegant, but I’m surprised you weren’t drooling over him this time like you did in Hulbury,” 

Rude.

“Bede and I have never gotten along well, but even I think that disqualifying him may have been harsh…” Dolly shrugged.

“Rose is a complicated man,” Sonia said. “And so is Bede. I heard during one of his matches that he doesn’t have any family,”

Dolly’s shoulders slumped. So, the Gym Challenge and Rose was probably all he had. No wonder he was a proper arse, she would be too, if she had no family. Her eyebrows pulled together. And Rose still disqualified him after one mistake? Bede was probably just trying to help Rose, trying to get some attention or love from a father-figure he admired. He was working so hard for Rose, just to be disqualified. There was no mercy, Rose took no time to teach Bede what would have been proper, but instead cast him aside simply because he ‘showed no love for Galar.’

A frown ghosted her lips. No, perhaps Rose wasn’t everything she thought he was.

“But what an awful turn of events…” Sonia said, breaking her from her thoughts. “I hope the mural survived all that.”

As Sonia spoke, the ground began to shake again, and the wall of stone began to crumble. Dolly and Sonia both lurched backwards as rocks fell to the earth, tripping and falling as dust exploded around them. They coughed, waving the debris away as the dust settled.

Dolly’s jaw dropped - what was once a colorful mural was now a gaping hole in the side of the cliff and within it, a deep chamber.

The back of the chamber curved, directing her eyes toward an archaic set of statues. Two tall stones stood, gazing beyond the chamber like kings. Crowns of rock adorned their heads and grand carvings framed their shoulders. Standing in front were two more statues, creatures regally posed as they too gazed into all of Galar.

Dolly’s eyes were drawn to the statue in front, it’s eyes and the shield it bore hauntingly familiar. Even though it was formed of rock, it was as if it’s gaze was piercing into her.

“Shield of Galar…” she whispered. 

The Slumbering Weald. The vision. The figure that stood before her, was it this?

“Look at that,” Sonia whispered too, eyes flicking beyond the rubble before them and into the chamber. “Those things are Pokmeon! Not only that, but they’re holding a sword and shield as if they were using them - the sword and shield were actually Pokémon!”

“The Pokémon from the Darkest Day?” Dolly asked, eyes still glued to the shield Pokémon. “But then what? They just faded from history?”

“I’m not sure...Why would these ruins be hidden if their story was depicted in those tapestries, in artwork?” Sonia asked, scratching her chin. 

Dolly nodded, still taking in the statues before them. That shadow lumbering before her in the Slumbering Weald...was it this? Was it a Pokémon? Did the voice and the call come from the Pokémon before her?

“My vision said Shield of Galar…” Dolly wondered aloud. “I wonder if it has anything to do with this Pokémon. If they are connected, that would make sense as to why I could hear it speak and Hop couldn't.”

“I feel like we made quite the discovery here,” Sonia said after a moment. “I’ve got a boatload to research now, thanks to Bede, and I’m sure you’ve got quite a bit to ponder as well. I’ll let you know if I run into anything about the Curse.”

Sonia and Dolly made their way back down the steps, stopping in front of the Gym. 

“You’re off to Ballonlea, huh?” Sonia asked, twirling her hair around her finger.

“Yep, then off to get my fifth Badge.”

“Make sure you’ve got your Pokémon healed up proper. I’ve researched the Glimwood Tangle a bit. Careful you don’t get lost for too long,” Sonia warned as she looked around to see if anyone was listening. She stepped closer to whisper. “They say if you’re in the forest too long, a Duskull will come to steal your soul...”

Dolly’s throat tightened. Not more Ghost Pokémon...

“R-really?” she whispered back, unconsciously lifting her hand to her chest.

Sonia’s eyes grew wide as she slowly nodded, and Dolly swallowed again.

“They hide in the shadows of the trees,” she whispered, face grim. “Waiting for the next unassuming victim… so, if you see a red light moving back and forth… Don’t look at it too long, or else... it’ll… GETCHA!”

Sonia shot her hands out and grabbed Dolly’s sides. Dolly screamed, and as soon as she did, Sonia burst out, doubling over laughing. 

“You should have seen your face!” she laughed, mimicking Dolly’s face a second before. It was quite the exaggerated caricature, with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

“Oh, stuff it, Sonia!” she yelped, pushing her arm as heat flared in her cheeks. 

“You’ll be fine, Dolly, you’ve got quite the team with you. Duskull don’t even live in the forest,” Sonia said, still laughing.

“Oi, what’re we laughing at?” a voice asked. 

Dolly turned to see Hop running up the steps behind them, her heart still pounding. 

“Just that Dolly’s scared of Ghost Pokémon,” Sonia smirked.

"Am not!” Dolly yelped defensively. 

“Duskulls especially.”

“Whatever,” Dolly said, hiking her bag further up her back. “I’ve got a forest to traverse through, so if you lot will excuse me.” 

She gave them a decisive nod and turned. Dolly had already started marching off, so she didn’t notice the nudge Sonia gave Hop, nor the flick of her head. She also didn’t notice the confused look, the exasperated groan, nor the shove Sonia gave Hop towards the forest. She did notice, however, how Hop seemed to trip a bit as he fell into step with her.

“I’m off to Ballonlea, too, mind a traveling partner?”

“Just as long as you don’t race off ahead,”

“Why, you scared of the dark spooky forest?”

“N-no,” she said, mentally smacking herself for the unintentional stutter. Hop let out a laugh.

“No need to worry. The handsome, brave, and incredibly fit Hop is here to protect any young damsel from a villainous Duskull,” he grinned, puffing out his chest. He walked stiffly, flexing his arms in front of him and waggling his eyebrows.

“You’re certainly feeling better,” she grinned. “I was pretty worried about you back there.” 

Hop’s bravado deflated as they crossed over the threshold of the Glimwood Tangle. 

“I trained up a bit and beat Allister in one go,” he said as they wove their way into the forest. “I guess I’ve also been thinking more about my team, good strategies, things like that. Cleared my head a bit. I might even find a nice Ghost Pokémon in the forest,”

Dolly rolled her eyes as Hop grinned sideways at her. Despite herself, Dolly couldn’t help but let out a sigh, the tension in her shoulders fading as Hop walked beside her.


	12. Specks of Gold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Sap (Vikavolt), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Mateo (Riolu), Dia (Meowstic)

**Chapter 12 - Specks of Gold**

They had been traveling for hours, weaving in and out of branches, bushes, mushrooms, and quite a few Impidimps. Dolly found an Indeedee, missed with her Poké Ball, then Mateo obliterated it with a critical hit Metal Claw. So much for a cool Fairy-type Pokémon. After much more trekking and training, the group found a nice clearing and settled in for some dinner.

“You’re fanning too fast, you’re going to burn it!” Dolly laughed, pushing Hop away from the curry pot.

“It’s gotta cook, Dolls, this man needs to EAT! I’m so hungry I could chew my own arm off,” Hop replied, furiously shaking his fan up and down. 

The Magikarp design flopped lazily, as Hop had broken part of the stick moments ago with his overzealous fanning. Hop’s Thwakey gleefully climbed up his shoulder, cheering them on with his squeaks and drumming on the top of Hop’s head.

“Cur-ry, cur-ry, cur-ry!” Jackson chanted beside them, his eyes glued to the large pot before him. 

“Cur-ry, cur-ry, cur-ry!” Mateo joined in, circling the pot. He trotted around in circles chanting alongside Jackson, the Pokémon forming a two-’mon conga line.

“See,” Hop said, waving his fan toward their curry-making peanut gallery. “Even our Pokémon are starved! Let’s get those berries BROILING!” 

Hop raised his fists in triumph as the Magikarp fan snapped off and smacked him square in the face. Thwakey fell off his shoulder, laughing all the way down as Hop clutched his nose. Thwakey joined into the Raboot and Riolu’s conga line, until the three were dancing around the curry pot. The rest of their teams sat scattered around the camp, watching the commotion and the young Pokémon’s chaotic dance moves. Music filled the air when Sap buzzed a tune with her wings as they hopped around.

“What’re they saying, anyway?” Hop asked nasally, clutching his throbbing nose.

Dolly rolled her eyes and let out another laugh, fanning at the fire. She had to wave the three chanting Pokémon out of the way when their conga line danced beneath her legs.

“They’re all just chanting ‘curry.’”

“Smart Pokémon! I encourage such chanting,” he replied, joining the chorus of Pokémon cries for dinner and the now three-Pokémon, one-man conga line. 

Even though she had to kick him when he tried following the conga line beneath her legs again, Dolly’s heart swelled to see Hop smiling. He had certainly been in a funk lately, and hearing him talk about how depressed he was feeling before their battle certainly made her worry. She heeded Hudson’s words from before, and vowed to stay by his side and support him during this phase. Even if she couldn’t fix everything he was going through, if she could offer him a small respite from his gloom, then that’s what she was going to do. That didn’t mean, however, he could conga wherever he wanted. When he tried crawling under her again, a loud thwack echoed in the clearing, and the laughter of three dancing Pokémon followed.

After a bit more cooking, chanting, and conga-ing, the curry was finally ready. The succulent scent wafted into the air - and into the noses of the drooling Pokémon - as everyone lined up. 

“All right you lot, it’s coming, hold your Ponytas,” Dolly smiled as she spooned out the curry to her and Hop’s team. 

They all eagerly held out their plates, received some curry, then took their seats around the fire. Some sat on the surrounding logs, others on the ground, some on each other, all enjoying the homemade curry. Dolly scraped out the final bits from the pot and took a seat next to Hop on the log by the fire, though she barely spooned the curry into her mouth before Jackson and Mateo bounded up to her.

“Dolly, hey Dolly, ask Hop to tell us a story!” Jackson said with a large smear of sauce in his fur.

“Oooh, yeah,” Hudson added from across the fire. “He’s a good storyteller.”

Sap buzzed in agreement.

“What? What about me?” Dolly pouted, rubbing at Jackson’s cheek with her thumb to get the sauce remnants off. “I thought you liked my stories?”

“He does all the voices though!” Jackson said, pushing her hand off his cheek. He whined when she licked her thumb to clean off the pesky curry.

“Yeah, pleeeaasssee Dolly?” Mateo asked, folding his paws together. “We never get to see Hop! I’ve only heard from Jackson about his stories, and I want to hear one too! Please please _pleeeaassee?”_

Dolly rolled her eyes and turned to Hop, who also had sauce smeared on his cheek. Was it really that challenging for them to get the spoon into their mouths?

“They want you to tell one of your stories.”

Hop almost glowed, sitting up straighter on the log. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, apparently mine aren’t good enough,” she laughed. 

She reached forward and wiped the sauce off his face, too. When he froze, she shot her hand back apologetically. Jackson and Mateo both bounded up to Hop.

“Hey come on, focus here!” Mateo said, snapping his fingers. “Change your aura back!”

“Yeah quit staring at Dolly and tell us a story! And put ninjas in it!” Jackson enthused.

“No, pirates!” Mateo said, pushing Jackson.

“And a passionate romance!” Rosa added from across the fire.

“Ew, don’t do that,” Mateo said, both him and Jackson pretending to barf.

Dolly rolled her eyes again and relayed her Pokémon’s requests to Hop. He nodded, then shooed all of the Pokémon to their places around the fire. An excited silence blanketed the clearing, and Hop seamlessly incorporated all of their requested elements, weaving the introduction to a tale of the star-crossed romance of a Skitty pirate and a Wailord ninja.

As Hop introduced the main characters, Dolly peeked at their Pokémon sitting around the fire and she quietly chuckled to herself. They were all fully and immediately enraptured by Hop’s storytelling - she had never known Jackson and Mateo to sit quietly for this long. Jackson missed his mouth again and smeared more sauce on his fur, too entranced by Hop’s narrative. 

Then, she looked to Hop too, smiling despite herself as she watched him act out small scenes and introduce a slew of characters. He was grinning ear to ear, luring his audience into the story with everything he had. Dolly tucked her knees up to her chest, setting her chin on top of them as she listened. He really seemed to come alive, entertaining their Pokémon like that, and Dolly was glad to see he was feeling better. Hop had such a nice smile.

As she watched Hop bounce around in his seat, weaving his odd story for their Pokémon, she couldn’t help but smile at his energy. He knew just what to say to make them all laugh, knew just what to say to make them swoon (well, Rosa at least. Jackson and Mateo pretended to barf again). Even though he didn’t know what they were saying, Hop seemed to have a knack for understanding her Pokémon anyway. They all loved him, and she couldn’t blame them. He was fun, kind, caring, among a slew of other characteristics.

Their fire popped, casting glowing embers into the air. Dolly’s eyes followed one, then her gaze landed on Hop again. The orange glow back lit his profile, and Dolly thought that yeah, Hop had such a nice smile.

Then, her eyebrows pulled together. 

But...

...Did he always have such a distinct jawline? 

...Or such… long eyelashes...?

She shook it out of her head, trying to focus on how this pirate Skitty had to be catapulted into the villain’s lair via Wailord tail. Their group of Pokémon laughed at the ridiculous villain’s monologue, and as Hop smiled again, something tightened in Dolly’s gut.

Where did that come from? Did she use spoiled ingredients?

Every once in a while, especially after a particularly clever line or funny quip, Hop’s eyes darted to Dolly’s. That tightness turned into an odd fluttering, as if a dozen Butterfree were set loose in her stomach every time their eyes met.

She waved it off as curry digestion and hugged her knees closer to her chest.

No one else seemed sick, so she did her best to shove it down, despite now being acutely aware of how often he would look at her. She suddenly became much more conscious of how she was sitting, how her hair laid, how dirty her face was. He was just telling a story though, and eye contact was important for audience engagement, right?

Right.

Her eyebrows pulled together as she started noticing more little details about him, like his forearms, his hands, his collarbone. Was that a _dimple?_ What was going on with her?!

He finally finished his tale with a bow and a smattering of applause from his small audience. Dolly couldn’t help but smile too as he looked at her and grinned, that odd sensation in her gut intensifying. 

After Dolly denied Jackson and Mateo’s request for a sequel (and after a series of ‘boo’s, ‘laaaaame,’s and a ‘why can’t you be cool like Hop’), it didn’t take long for Pokémon and Trainers alike to be droopy-eyed and relaxed after their dinner theater showing. Hop let out a yawn and stretched, relaxing his arms behind his head and leaning against the log behind him. Dolly hugged Jackson to her chest as he lay sleeping, worn out from leading their tiny conga line and re-enacting a ninja pirate fight scene with Mateo. The occasional muttering of ‘curry’ escaped his mouth.

“So... did they like it?” Hop asked, cautiously glancing toward Dolly.

“Like it?” Dolly laughed. “Did you not see those Raboot and Riolu re-enacted fight scenes? Hop, they loved it, and they adore you.”

Hop bit his lip and grinned, looking back to the fire. Dolly watched his shoulders ease down. 

...Were his shoulders always so broad? 

Maybe she would stop identifying these physical characteristics of his if she wasn’t so close to him. She trotted over, careful not to wake Jackson, and leaned against her Mudsdale who sat gazing at the fire. Sitting by Hop made her feel weird and sitting by Hudson didn’t.

The rest of her team had settled in for the night, snoozing safely in their Poké Balls, and Dolly looked beyond the Mudsdale into the forest. It was certainly an odd place. Though she wouldn’t outwardly admit it, she was glad to have Hop and his team here with her. She knew her team was fully capable of handling anything untoward, but there was still something off about the Glimwood Tangle, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

It was charming, sure, what with its glowing mushrooms and tall, dark trees. There were a few Trainers scattered throughout the forest, but she and Hop hadn’t interacted with many that day. Now that their curry was cooked and everyone was winding down, the forest seemed to take on a new life. Purple figures appeared in the corner of her eye, but when she turned to look directly, there was nothing there. Little shimmering specks floated about their camp, wafting down from the tops of the trees. They danced with the embers - had those always been there, or had she just now noticed them in the light of their glowing fire? The air seemed thick, too. It smelled of campfire smoke and… something else, something else she couldn’t quite place her finger on. A shiver went down her spine, and she hugged Jackson closer. Although it helped a little, it wasn’t the air that was cold.

Their fire cast warped shadows on the ground, and Dolly dared to look directly into the forest. The darkness swirled, though she wasn’t sure if it was just the leaves swaying in the trees. When something rustled in the bushes, Dolly’s skin started to prickle. Maybe having Hop beside her too wouldn’t be _so_ bad.

“Hop, do you mind sitting over here?” Dolly asked, peering around Hudson’s flank.

“What, you scared?” he snickered. 

“No…”

She heard Hop snicker again and she saw his purple hair poke up from behind Hudson. 

“Scared a Duskull’s gonna getcha?”

“Just get over here, would you?” she huffed. 

He laughed and took a seat next to her, and Dolly tried to discreetly shuffle closer to him when the bushes rustled again. They sat in silence for a while, the breathing of her Pokémon partners slowing as they settled in for the night. Hop had returned his team to their Poké Balls, so it was just the four of them out by the fire. Beyond the occasional muttering of Jackson in his sleep, the only noise came from the crackling of their fire, and from the forest around them. 

The air seemed thicker than even minutes before, and a light pink mist seemed to be wafting through their camp. It smelled a bit like vanilla, or maybe a bit of honeysuckle. Little bells, or something similar, tinkled throughout the trees. It was odd, but having Hop sit next to her certainly made her more at ease... But, at the same time, a little more nervous. She tingled in the spots where their almost skin met; it made the hair on her neck stand on end as if lightning were about to strike.

“Traveling with your team is fun,” Hop said. “I’ve always liked telling ridiculous stories, but my favorite part is making them laugh... making you laugh...”

Ahem. What?

She tucked her chin into Jackson’s fur.

“Well, you’re pretty good at it…” Dolly mumbled.

They sat and gazed at the fire again, Dolly attempting to deflect the barrage of thoughts erupting through her mental defenses. Her? Making her, specifically her, laugh? Why did he pause like that? Did she even hear him right? What did it matter, though, he was funny and charming and handsome and a good storyteller so of course he’d want to make his audience laugh, right? But why wasn’t she grouped into the category of ‘them’? Wait, no, he wasn’t charming or handsome, Leon and Rose were charming and handsome and Hop was…

...Hop.

This was getting weird.

“Hey Dolls,” 

Dolly turned her head, only to jump back a few inches - Hop was sitting _much_ closer than she anticipated and that odd electricity tingled again. The light from the fire accented his face, adding a warm glow to his skin. Dolly cleared her throat.

“Hm?”

“I just wanted to say thanks for being my best mate.” 

“Oh, yeah, you too, Hop.”

She guessed Hop always had odd-colored eyes, but had they always been so… striking...? Did they always have those specks of gold? Had his eyelashes always framed his eyes like that? Perhaps it was just the firelight casting shadows… Or perhaps she had just never noticed before now, or perhaps her Meowstic added something funky to the curry. Yeah, that was it. Her memory seemed foggy. 

“Ever since I was curb-stomped by Bede I’ve had to do a lot of thinking, about what I want, what my goals are, and stuff like that. I do know it’ll involve Pokémon,” he said as he reached around Dolly to pat Hudson on the head. 

As he leaned over her, her heart skipped. She tried to ignore it as he continued. 

“And I do still plan to beat Lee and be the next Champion, but what Bede said about me dragging Lee’s name through the mud… I dunno. Anyway,” he continued, folding his arms. “Even with a wally like that, you’ve been a good mate through my weird funk, and for as long as we’ve known each other,”

He turned from the fire, and again Dolly noticed those specks of gold.

“I’m glad you moved to Postwick,” he ended as his face broke a soft smile.

After being friends for so many years, Dolly had seen his megawatt grin a thousand times before, but never such a tender smile. Why was this time… different? Why did it make her stomach feel tight? What was that odd sensation as if another thousand Butterfree exploded into her gut?

“And I know things have been hard for you too lately, what with the whole country learning about this rubbish… Numel… noodle…”

“Nuzlocke.”

“Right, Nuzlocke Curse. I think you’re doing an ace job despite all of it, and I’m happy to call you my rival. You’re always pushing me to be my best, and I’m glad you respect me enough to never go easy on me. It’s really helped me grow.”

Dolly had never seen such sincerity in his eyes before. She swallowed. The air definitely seemed thicker, and she wondered if Hop could hear how hard her heart was beating. She needed to focus on what he was saying, and not the way he was looking at her. Or how close he was sitting. Or the gold specks that shone in his eyes in the glow of the firelight. Or how soft his lips looked.

She tore her eyes away from his and to the fire, which was almost out at this point, and tucked her nose into Jackson’s fur. Hop’s hand brushed hers and electricity shot through her, sparking a current in the nerves that were otherwise silent, and Dolly hesitated before turning again. Hop had inched his way closer still, and his eyelids drooped as the glow of the forest highlighted his face.

“I know we can get through these things together,” he said.

She nodded. Together. Right. Together because they were friends. Best friends. Even throughout all of their time being best friends, they had sat this close before, but why was this time… different? Why, of all times, was she just now noticing these little aspects about him?

Was it a trick of the light or was he leaning in? Why would he be leaning in? Did she want him to be leaning in? Why were his half-lidded eyes so overwhelming? Why did her skin feel so hot? Why was she so sweaty? Had she never looked at his lips before now? She looked from his jawline to his nose, his lips, to his eyes, his lips again, up to his pink hat, his cheekbones, his lips… Dolly shook her head. 

Pink hat...? She squinted harder and gasped.

“There’s an Impidimp on your head!”

“What?”

The Impidimp stuck out its tongue, spun around, smacked its butt, and leaped onto Hudson’s mane. Dolly jumped forward as it started pulling on her hair, then it clambered over her head, slung down her bangs, snatched her glasses, used her face as a springboard, and ran towards the forest. Pink splotches littered their camp as Dolly squinted to make out any semblance of a figure, but unfortunately the darkness and her sub-par eyesight was not a helpful combination.

“Hey, get back here!” she yelped, rising to her feet and accidentally tossing Jackson to the ground.

Hop was up before she was, yelling obscenities at the retreating Impidimp. She could just make out the blue of his jacket before she heard a whinny from Hudson, a snap, and the tinkle of glass.

“Whoops…” Hudson muttered.

“Dolls, this place is filled with Ponyta! Sprtizee, too! No wonder it smelled so weird!”

Dolly squinted around, to no avail, as she only could make out blobs of color throughout their camp.

“Ugh, what’s going on?” Jackson mumbled as he rubbed at his eyes.

From the dark fuzziness came Hop, holding a Spritzee in his arms. It mewed softly and a thick sweet smell wafted around them - vanilla and honeysuckle. Dolly had to move her head close to the Pokémon to get a good glance.

“What’s the deal, Spritzee?”

The Pokémon giggled. 

“Ponyta mentioned,” it said as it flapped a wing toward a white and pink lump by the fire. “That there was a lot of intense emotions somewhere around here, so we came to investigate. It’s so rare we find two cuties like you both, so we simply _had_ to make the romantic ambiance _perfect!”_

The heat in Dolly’s cheeks flared again as she quickly glanced to Hop, who was watching her as the two of them conversed.

“Well,” she coughed out. “Um. I don’t know what that could have been about. So that really wasn’t necessary... and, you also attracted some Impidimps, and now my glasses are broken. How do you expect me to get out of the Glimwood Tangle now?”

“Oh, those Impidimps…” the Spritzee grumbled. “Always ruining our matchmaking plans. Well, all you have to do is follow the green mushrooms!”

It squirmed out of Hop’s arms and fluttered to the ground.

“But don’t let us interfere, back to where you were, now!” the Spritzee said, pushing behind Hop’s knees. He stumbled forward into Dolly and she braced her hands against his chest, their faces only inches apart. 

Ahem. Wow. He was… uh. Firm. That. Yeah. Wow.

The Spritzee giggled and skipped off toward the other pink and purple shapes surrounding the glowing embers. The bushes rustled as the colors faded into the blackness behind them.

After a moment, and then a moment after that, Hop stood up straight and cleared his throat. 

“Um, s-sorry,” he said, shaking his head.

“Y-yeah, you’re fine,” she mumbled, jerking her hands off his chest and into her pockets.

“What did the Spritzee say? What were they gathered around us for?” he asked, still standing a hair too close.

“Uh, it said that…”

She couldn’t bring herself to look into the eyes of her best mate, partially because she actually couldn’t see him. But, even now that the thick, pink air was starting to evaporate, the fluttering in her stomach was still full force.

“It said that they came to investigate because we...” 

She froze. No, that couldn’t be it. There… that… no. That would be weird. There was no ambiance, that Ponyta probably just ate a weird mushroom… or something.

“Because they smelled the curry! Yes, that’s what it said,” Dolly continued. “They stopped by to see if there was any more.”

“That’s not what it said!” Jackson protested, hopping up at her. 

She could still feel Hop’s eyes on her. She wondered if he could see the sweat beginning to prickle on her brow.

“Huh, we should have made extra, they were probably hungry then,” he huffed, setting his hands on his hips.

Dolly let out a puff of air she didn’t realize she was holding.

“That doesn’t fix the situation about your glasses, though. Sorry about that, Dolls… maybe once we get to Ballonlea we can get you another pair.”

“Hopefully,” she replied. “Not sure how I’m going to get through the rest of the forest when everything looks like a green fuzzy blob.”

“Not sure either, but right now I’m knackered,” Hop said, letting out a yawn. “Let’s get some shut eye and figure it out tomorrow. Assuming it’s still night-time. I can’t tell anything in this bloody forest.”

Dolly agreed and resumed her position laying against Hudson. She rustled through her bag to find a blanket, and yawned again as Jackson clambered back into her lap.

“That’s not what that Sprtizee said, why’d you lie?” Jackson huffed as he curled into a ball.

“I, well… just go to sleep, Jackson.”


	13. Tinge of Pink

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Sap (Vikavolt), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Mateo (Riolu), Dia (Meowstic)

**Chapter 13 - Tinge of Pink**

Yeah this was getting weird.

Well not that _she_ was weird, or, or that _they_ were weird, or… or something. It was probably normal for her heart to be beating so fast. It was… probably just another Spritzee, or something, that was making it clatter against her chest. Yeah that was it. That was why her heart was beating so hard with Hop holding her hand like that.

Dolly’s heart thrummed as they stepped through the forest, the dark shadows and neon turquoise mushrooms speckling their path forward. She wished it weren’t beating so hard, honestly, because that would probably make her hand less sweaty. She wondered if Hop noticed. 

“I think we’re almost there,” he said, smiling back at her. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

There was that soft smile again. She wondered how high her blood pressure was at that point. Ever since they woke up that morning, it was like her heart rate sky-rocketed and consistently stayed at one billion beats per minute. She remembered back to the moment it spiked. 

It was that morning, three seconds after she opened her eyes. After their eventful evening with the Impidimps and Spritzee, she and Hop fell into quite a peaceful sleep. She wondered if that Spritzee’s Sweet Scent helped them sleep so well, but Dolly couldn’t think about it at the time because as soon as she woke up, they were both still leaning against Hudson. What was different this time, however, was how she woke up with her arm flung over his torso and her face in the crook of his neck. Her skin tingled where his arms were draped around her waist, hugging her against him, but it was nothing compared to the explosion of Butterfree flapping furiously in her gut. 

She had bolted off of him, stumbling into the soot of their old campfire. Apparently, he was already awake and tried to sputter out an explanation. 

“Sorry! Sorry Dolls, I-I, uh, I tried to move over, but you just kept… you just kept clinging onto me like that so I kind of gave up. I didn’t really want to wake you up, because you and Jackson just seemed so tired and… and um… and comfortable, so I just, I just left you like that. Sorry,”

“Um. Right. Me too. Sorry.”

“You both sound like idiots!” Jackson had yelped from his own spot on the ground. She had tossed him off unceremoniously when she bolted away from Hop.

She couldn’t say either of them were the most eloquent individuals, but even this was pathetic. Guess that odd flapping feeling hadn’t left with the Spritzee either. He was her best mate, always had been, and it’s not like they had never hugged before, so why was this suddenly feeling so _weird?_

Dolly shook the thought out of her head, delicately stepping down the dirt path. It couldn’t be much farther to Ballonlea. Half of her wanted to be there in the next twenty seconds so she wouldn’t die from a heart attack, but the other half of her really didn’t mind it was taking so long, as Hop’s hand around hers was kind of comforting. 

Though it was becoming increasingly difficult, Dolly tried to think about anything that wasn’t Hop. Not about his eyes, not about his lips, not about his smile, but it was certainly challenging when he was holding her hand like that. They had hugged in the past, sat next to each other in the past, but this was the first time in her life that Dolly held hands with him.

At first, she had tried to refuse the whole hand-holding deal, trying to ride on Hudson and let her Mudsdale be her guide while she was glasses-less. Unfortunately for her, her eight-foot, two thousand-pound Mudsdale didn’t exactly fit nicely through the tangled brush and branches. Her mind flashed back to that moment. 

“Come on, don’t be daft,” Hop had huffed, looking up to her from the ground. “Hudson’s too big to make it through this part of the forest.”

“I can’t see anything, Hop, and he can. You want me to run into trees or off a cliff?”

“Not sure how many cliffs there are around here,” Hudson stated from beneath her.

“You know that would actually be pretty funny,” Hop said, scratching his chin.

“You’re lucky you’re only a fuzzy blob or I’d smack that smirk I know is on your face,”

“Come on, Dolls, get down, I’ll help you through,”

“And how do you expect that to happen?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Just hold my sleeve or bag or something, easy.”

When Hudson stopped in his steps forward, she grumbled again and swung her leg over. When she started to slide down, Hudson tilted too far to the side and Dolly scrambled to catch herself. She squeezed her eyes shut in expectation of the hard ground, or maybe on a branch or something as was her luck, but instead fell into something much softer. When she opened her eyes, she was met with Hop’s face, much closer and in much more detail than he was a second ago. She cleared her throat.

“Uh, nice catch.”

“Reflexes like a Liepard,” he grinned, setting her on her feet. “Now come on, our adoring fans are waiting on us,”

Dolly returned Hudson to his Poké Ball and took another step forward. A branch appeared out of the ground beneath her and her shoe caught on it, catapulting her forward again straight into Hop. He caught her fluidly, bracing her with ease. 

Yep okay his stomach was firm too and Dolly made a mental note to forget that.

“Bit clumsy today, huh? You really must have a terrible prescription,” Hop said, lifting her to her feet again. 

The heat burned in her cheeks and she could only bring herself to nod and look at anything that wasn’t her mate in front of her. Then, she saw a flash of pink Pokémon fur rustling back into the bushes and her eyes widened. Is that where that branch came from...?

It did not take long for him to switch her from holding his sleeve to holding his hand. ‘Since you can’t seem to take two steps without falling,’ he had defended himself at the time.

And so, there they were, hand-in-hand, stepping through the glow of the Glimwood Tangle. She wished she could ignore how her hand fit in his with their fingers interlocked like that. Specks of light were fluttering down from the tree canopy, cascading around them like an odd summer snow. Their path was highlighted by a trail of mushrooms, each giving off a bright neon glow. The air was sweet again as she glanced up at Hop. 

He had the ghost of a smile on his lips as he was walking forward, his cheekbones highlighted by the alternating yellows, blues, and pinks of the forest. When he met her eyes, she looked away. 

They continued, leaves and twigs crunching under their feet as they traveled to Ballonlea. She stepped on a few leaves and they offered a satisfying crunch. The sweet smell was wafting around them again, and Dolly breathed in the scent of vanilla. After a few more minutes of walking, their path had divulged into two, one leading left, and one leading right.

“Hmm,” Hop hummed, unconsciously brushing his thumb back and forth on her skin. The motion made her nerves tingle.

Yep, time to ignore that too.

“Right or left?” he asked, turning to her. 

Dolly squinted her eyes. The path on the left was a fuzzy dark green, and the path on the right was a fuzzy dark green.

“I don’t know why you keep asking me this,” she sighed. 

“It’s funny.”

“You’re a twit. Maybe Mateo can help us decide, he has excellent intuition,” she said, releasing her hand from his. She reached into her bag, pulled out Mateo’s Poké Ball, and her Riolu appeared before them, a small spot of blue against the dark brown of the ground.

“Hey buddy,” she smiled, squatting down to pet him on the head. “My glasses broke last night, and I can’t see anything, and Hop is as good as useless. Can you help us decide which path to take to get to Ballonlea?”

Mateo grinned and his head bobbed up and down. Immediately he started towards the right, guiding the pair down the path. Hop nonchalantly slipped his hand into hers again, and their fingers wove together. He was so casual, so natural, and that confidence in his movements made her cheeks heat up again.

As soon as she blushed, Mateo looked back. He glanced from his Trainer, down to their hands, and although he was awfully blurry, Dolly thought she saw the hint of a smile.

“At least you match now,” he said, pulling a branch from Dolly’s path.

“What?”

“Oh, nothin’,” he grinned, skipping ahead of them to move more brush off the path.

Dolly swallowed again, trying her best to be inconspicuous when glancing at Hop. Why did he seem different now? What was it about this forest that made her best friend somehow seem… new?

“Dolly, can Jackson come out and play?” Mateo asked, tearing her from her thoughts.

“Um, no, sorry Mateo,” she said, glancing away guiltily. “He’s... sleeping.”

Sweat pricked on her brow as Mateo eyed her. He could probably see right through her lie. In all reality, she didn’t want Jackson out because he kept asking her about why she lied about what the Spritzee said and kept asking why she kept looking at Hop. Then he asked why he was hugging her when they woke up and then he asked why she freaked out and then he asked why her cheeks were so pink and then he asked for some fruit snacks and then he asked why Hop’s cheeks were so pink and then he asked why Hop kept looking at her and then she returned him to his Poké Ball. She did give him some fruit snacks, though.

“Is it because you don’t want him to talk about you holding hands with Hop?”

Yeah, he saw right through her. That didn’t take long.

“Uh-”

“Don’t worry,” Mateo smiled. “I’ll tell him not to. I’m glad you’re holding hands with Hop, your aura is really happy. Can he hold my hand too? I want my aura to be that happy.”

Dolly paused, processed, then let out a laugh as affection for her little Riolu blossomed in her heart. She squeezed Hop’s hand and he looked back at her.

“Hop, Mateo wants to know if you’ll hold his hand too,”

Hop paused as well. A grin spread onto his face as his eyebrows pulled together. 

“Aw, of course, little guy!”

Her Riolu beamed and grabbed Hop’s hand, swinging it forward as they walked. 

She wondered what time it was. Neither of their phones worked in the forest, nor did any other bit of technology they had, and the canopy of trees was thick. There was no way to tell if it was day or night, and Dolly decided that the Glimwood Tangle certainly was an odd place.

They traveled through the forest, battling a few Fairy-types. Mateo was growing stronger, and Dolly was sure he was bound to evolve soon. He was going to be their main Pokémon for her battle with the Fairy Gym, and perhaps after that he would become a Lucario. She was surprised Jackson hadn’t evolved yet either, he was probably due soon as well.

“Can Jackson come out and play _now_ , Dolly? Pleeeaassee?” Mateo asked, releasing Hop’s hand and grabbing onto hers. She looked down to his big orange eyes as his lower lip stuck out.

Well how on earth was she supposed to say no with those big, sweet eyes looking up at her like that? She rolled her eyes and tossed out Jackson’s Poké Ball.

“Why are you holding _hands?!”_ Jackson yelled the second he appeared before them.

“Stop, Jackson, don’t talk about it!” Mateo protested, shoving his friend.

The Raboot and Riolu bounded around Dolly and Hop as they walked through the forest. Hop cheered on her Pokémon as they raced to specific trees, and Mateo continuously won, even after a dozen races. When Jackson kicked at the ground in frustration, Hop knelt down to give him a pep-talk about being excited for his friend and how ace it was that he had a rival to challenge him. After that, Jackson hugged Mateo and thanked him for being an ‘ace rival,’ and Mateo said ‘ _I’m_ an ace rival? _You’re_ an ace rival!’

Dolly bit back a smile, affection blooming in her heart for the three before her.

“You’re amazing,” Dolly told Hop as he stood and wove his hand around hers again.

It was Hop’s turn to blush as he scratched at the back of his neck. 

“I mean it,” she smiled, curling her other hand around his arm. “You’re so good at encouraging everyone you’re around. You’re attentive and always know just what to say.”

“Dolls,” he grumbled, his cheeks flaring a deep red. 

“I think you’re strong in the best ways,” she continued. “I hope you don’t believe what Bede said, and I really hope you don’t think you’re rubbish.”

He stopped, turning to her as his brows pulled together. Dolly tried to look at him as sincerely and as earnestly as he had for her so many times. Leaves fluttered around them, flickering in the light of the glowing mushrooms and she set her hands on his arms.

“You’re not useless, Hop, far from it. It broke my heart when I heard you say that. I can’t even tell you how much you have helped me throughout this whole journey - throughout my whole life. Leon is Leon, and you are you. He may be your older brother, but I hope that you will one day understand how amazing _you_ are.”

She beamed at him. He watched her, his brow furrowed and his mouth hanging open. She wondered what he was thinking. Instead of asking, she pulled him into a hug, and his arms paused, then wound around her.

“Thank you,” he said, breathing out half a laugh.

“Just returning the favor,” she smiled, stepping back. 

His hands hovered over her waist as he stood, still gazing at her with that odd expression. She couldn’t wonder about it long, however, as suddenly something snaked across her ankles.

She glanced down and was met with glowing red eyes. Their light pulsed in the air, hellish and ethereal. She screamed and scrambled back, trying to put as much distance between her and the wild Phantump as possible. Jackson and Mateo bolted to her, but Hop already called dibs and he caught it enthusiastically, excited to add another member to his ever-growing team. Dolly was still trying to catch her breath when he tossed his new team member out of the Poké Ball again.

“Look how cute he is!” Hop beamed, holding his Phantump up to Dolly. “I’ve never had a Ghost-type before,”

She took a startled step backwards, eyeing the Ghost Pokémon and how its tail faded into the air. The Phantump’s glowing red eyes bore into her and he let out a small cry. The sound was just like a child’s, yet it carried a strange, paranormal undertone. The hair on her neck stood on end, and she couldn't swallow past the knot in her throat as her breathing quickened.

“You can’t seriously be scared of this little guy?” Hop asked incredulously. He smirked as he stepped towards her, wiggling the Phantump in front of her face.

“H-Hop, don’t!” Dolly stuttered, her eyebrows pulling together.

“Come on, he’s so small!”

Dolly tripped and backed against a tree. When the Phantump cried again, she shoved her hands up to cover her ears and her blood felt like it was turning cold as the sound reverberated around her skull. When Hop took another mischievous step toward her, Mateo and Jackson bounded up and shoved themselves between Dolly and Hop and his Phantump. 

Realization dawned on his face when he watched her two Pokémon staring at him, poised for action. He pulled his Phantump back, patted him on the head, then returned him to his Poké Ball. Dolly tried to discreetly wipe the tears from her eyes as she shoved past Hop and back onto the path.

“I thought Sonia was joking about you being scared of Ghost Pokémon.”

“Yeah, well, she wasn’t,” Dolly retorted, stomping away. 

Hop heaved out a sigh as he watched Dolly trudge back down the path. Well, attempt to trudge. She had to step slowly and lightly as to not trip over the woven roots that littered the path. Jackson and Mateo were both working at guiding her through. Hop trotted up beside her.

“Dolls…”

She glared at the ground, arms fiercely crossed over her chest. He looked to Mateo and Jackson, whose eyes were still watching Hop’s movements. Their muscles were tense, still ready to pounce if their Trainer needed. Hop reached towards Dolly’s arm, only for her to yank it away.

“I was only joking,” 

“I don’t care.”

“He was just a baby one, though,”

Dolly whirled around and glared at him. 

“I can’t help that I’m scared of them, Hop. I wish I wasn’t, and now your Phantump might feel bad about himself.”

She turned again, storming off.

“It’s embarrassing,” she continued. “Eighteen years old and still scared of ghosts.”

Hop’s shoulders slumped as he watched her walk away. He glanced down to Mateo and Jackson, who were staring up at him, arms crossed.

“So much for being encouraging. I’m a proper arse, huh guys?”

“Yup.”

“Yeah, you are.”

They walked in silence, Dolly squinting as she tried to make out the ridges of roots on the path. Even when she tripped, she pulled her hand away whenever Hop reached for her. After a few tense minutes and a few times of Dolly angrily scuffing at the ground whenever she tripped, Hop ushered Jackson and Mateo to fall into step with him.

“So, gentlemen, how do you think I can make Dolls know that I’m sorry?”

Dolly continued to trudge forward, glaring at the ground in front of her.

“Should I… give her all of my money?” he asked her two Pokémon, holding his hands behind his back.

“I’m sure twenty bucks wouldn’t hurt,” Jackson said.

“No that’s shallow,” Mateo said. “Dolly would want something more thoughtful.”

“Should I… sing her a song?”

“Not that either. When you sang in your Skitty and Wailord story you weren’t very good.”

Hop scratched his chin, still trotting a few feet behind Dolly.

“Should I… put a Riolu on my head?”

“Oh, yeah, do that!” Mateo beamed. He clambered over to Hop, who then lifted him up. Mateo’s stomach laid on the top of Hop’s head, and his arms and legs draped over his ears. The Riolu tried to hold back his laugh as Hop continued forward.

“Hm… I think she’s still upset. What else should I do to show her I’m sorry?”

Dolly had to glare forward and vehemently resist looking back at the two of them.

“Should I… cook her some curry?”

“No,” Jackson laughed, watching Mateo up on Hop’s head. “You almost burned ours yesterday.”

“Should I… give her a kiss?”

“Ew!”

“Gross!”

“Should I… also put a Raboot on my head?”

“Yes! Me too, me too!” Jackson said, bouncing up and down.

Jackson laughed as Hop scooped him up, setting him on top of Mateo on top of his head. He held their legs as he tried to balance the two giggling Pokémon as he walked behind Dolly. He sped up a tad, matching her pace. He slowly turned his head, and Dolly had to purse her lips to force back the smile that was threatening to escape.

“Odd weather we’re having, don’t you think Dolls? I’ve heard about it raining cats and dogs, but never Riolus and Raboots.”

“Good one.”

He hummed as he walked next to her, the two Pokémon still trying not to laugh as they lay atop his head.

“The Glimwood Tangle sure is Raboot-iful, don’t you think?”

She couldn’t stop the snort that escaped.

“I hope you will… uh… no wait. I hope Riolu… Rio-you’ll… I hope Riolu’ll forgive me.”

“What?”

“Yeah that was a stretch, I couldn’t think of a good one for Riolu.”

Dolly shook her head, allowing the corner of her lips to twitch up. Hop grazed her arm with his hand, and she finally stopped.

“I really am sorry, Dolls.”

She set her hands on her hips, her smile twitching up even more. 

“Can you take them off your head? I can’t take you seriously with four furry limbs dangling around your face.”

“Are you sure? I think they like it up there.”

“I feel tall!” Jackson beamed.

Hop smiled as he tilted his head down, catching the two giggling Pokémon as they dropped into his arms. He set them on the ground, giving them each a knuckle bump.

“Thanks for your help, boys.”

He stood tall again as the two Pokémon bounded off. He took another step towards Dolly, who was still crossing her arms, smirking up at him.

“Can you forgive me?” he asked, batting his eyelashes. She rolled her eyes again and heaved out a breath.

“Fine, yes, I forgive you. Stop looking at me like that. Can we go now, please?”

He nodded, flashed his megawatt grin, and they started forward again. Dolly was still stepping slowly, careful to make out the grooves and roots beneath her feet. The forest swayed around them, leaves and pink flecks fluttering down from the tops of the trees. Cool air breezed through her hair, across her face, as she delicately stepped over the dark roots beneath her feet. Pink, yellow, and turquoise glows highlighted her face and speckled across the ground, and although she liked the colors, it wasn’t helping her depth perception.

“...Dolls?”

“Hm?”

“C-can I… um…”

Dolly turned, watching as a warm pink highlighted his cheeks.

“What?”

Hop was glancing at the ground, scuffing at a leaf with his shoe. Her eyebrows pulled together as he cleared his throat, then glanced up at her again.

“Can I hold your hand again?”

Her heart thrummed again, beating her blood through her body and into her cheeks. Why’d he have to look at her like that? He had never looked at her like _that_ before _._ It was so tender and… embarrassing. Ugh. 

“F-fine. Just don’t… do anything stupid again,” she muttered, sticking her hand out for him.

Her heart kicked harder when he smiled at her, that odd fluttering making its way back into her gut. He wove his fingers around hers with ease.

“That’s a lot to ask of me, Dolls,” he said, bumping her shoulder with his.

“Tell me about it, you twit.”

Jackson and Mateo vowed to protect them from any more Phantumps and they bravely led the charge through the rest of the Glimwood Tangle. It didn’t take long for the trees to start to thin as they finally made it into Ballonlea.

The fuzzy colors burst around them, and when her Pokémon gasped and called out in excitement, Dolly couldn’t help but grow frustrated that she couldn’t see what they were talking about. Hop tore through the town, came back and grabbed her, and they finally found Dolly some new glasses. Hop kept them from her, however, until they made it back to the entrance.

“I thought I told you not to do anything else stupid,” Dolly huffed, pulling his hand away from her eyes.

“Yeah well I want you to see it how we got to see it when we first came in,” he said, finally handing her her glasses.

She frowned at him, set her glasses on her face, blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted, then gasped.

The village of Ballonlea was dynamic, with bold neon glows to compliment the deep purple hues that adorned the city. Tall trees framed the town, protecting each resident and Pokémon with dark green leaves and woven bark. She grinned as she watched Inkays, Morelulls, and Chinchous floating through the air above her head. They swam around her, pulling up a few strands of her hair, and the platinum strands shimmered in the flickering lights of the lanterns scattered through the town. 

Each house was adorned with purple roofs and lush green foliage, the vines and flowers weaving up and over the siding, along the windowsills, framing the cozy houses. Dozens of different colors of mushrooms speckled the earth, the trees, the houses, casting colors across her shoes as Dolly walked along the path. They passed over a dark river as it bubbled underneath a charming wooden bridge, sloshing up on the banks around it. Her neck arched as her eyes followed the rugged tree trunk that cascaded over them, creating a magnanimous archway as they passed over the river. They started looping back and Dolly noticed the tall turquoise mushrooms of the forest, again highlighting the familiar dark trees. A young girl was playing a pan flute, the wooden and airy sound gliding through the village.

Dolly had wrapped her hand around Hop’s arm again, holding it against her as she gazed up at the canopy of trees. He helped her balance, as she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the spectacular view above and around her. They stepped through the town, Dolly’s jaw hanging open the entire time. 

“Wow,” she finally breathed. “This place is so beautiful.”

She was watching the Chinchous and Inkays swimming in the air above her head, so she didn’t catch how Hop smiled at her, how his eyes darted about her face, or how he never looked away from her as he responded.

“Yeah. Absolutely beautiful.”

She also didn’t notice how her Raboot and Riolu were glancing between the two Trainers, then at each other, or how Jackson pretended to gag.

She tore her eyes away from the village and back to Hop, who was standing closer than anticipated. She stepped back and apologetically moved her hand from his arm and into her pocket. He still curled his fingers around hers, however, as his eyes flit about her face.

He was still standing too close, and her stupid heart was still beating too stupid fast. It didn’t help that this place was so odd, so charming. It also didn’t help that the little Pokémon that floated around her head each took a strand of hair and pulled her closer to Hop. When she stood only a foot away, they finally let go, flickered a few sparkles into the air, then floated off.

“What?” she finally asked, her cheeks heating up as she watched him watch her. 

“What?” Hop repeated. When he didn’t continue or add any other semblance of explanation, Dolly cleared her throat and pushed her glasses higher on her nose. 

“W-well…” Dolly started. “Um, thanks… for your help.”

“Yeah, anytime,” Hop said. “I’m glad we’re together.”

Then, his eyes widened. 

“I-I mean, together in the forest. Like. Traveling together. That was, um, that was… cool. I liked you. _It_. Uh. Traveling. With you. It was… cool.”

Dolly nodded her head.

“Right, so I - um. I think I’m going to train a spot more. Actually. In the forest.” Hop said.

“Right.”

“...”

“...”

“S-so, um. Bye Dolls.”

“Bye.”

Hop was still pausing, and Jackson and Mateo glanced at each other again.

“Good luck with the Gym,” Hop said, brushing his thumb over hers.

Her nerves tingled. When she stepped back, an Inkay pushed her closer.

“Thanks, um, you too. Once you’re done training.”

“Yeah…”

Hop was still staring at her, still holding her hand.

“I’ll see you later then,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Um. Bye.”

“Bye Hop.”

“...”

“...”

“Do you want me to come to your match?” Hop asked.

“That’s okay, you can train.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Dolly watched him swallow, watched his eyes flit about her face.

“You said you needed to train, and it’s not like you can’t watch it later,” she said.

“Right. Yeah. You’re right.”

Dolly watched his eyes flick down to their hands, fingers still intertwined.

“Hop?”

His eyes shot back up to hers expectantly.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve got my glasses now, I can see.”

“I know,”

“So… um…” she trailed off, again looking at their hands still woven together.

He followed her gaze, then his hand shot back.

“Right. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Dolly said, her cheeks heating up. “So, um… I should probably…”

“Y-yeah, me too.”

Dolly glanced up at him. He was scratching behind his neck, and Dolly wasn’t sure if it was the glow of the mushrooms in the village or if it was a blush that was creeping up on his cheeks.

“Bye Dolls.”

“Bye Hop.”

He paused, slowly turned, then he left, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. She didn’t know she was holding her breath until she let out a deep sigh, her own hand feeling strangely empty without his around it. Her Raboot and Riolu stepped up beside her.

“Well that was awkward.” Jackson said.

“Yep,” Mateo agreed.

“Yeah,” Dolly sighed.

That was uncharacteristically awkward. As her heart thrummed, as her skin tingled, she couldn’t help but think that the Glimwood Tangle certainly was an odd place.


	14. Mushroom Graves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Raboot), Sap (Vikavolt), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Mateo (Riolu), Dia (Meowstic)

**Chapter 14 - Mushroom Graves**

Mateo bounded around the pitch, jumping back and forth. This was his first Gym battle, and he had been gearing up for a while. Steel was one of the few Pokémon types effective against Opal’s Fairy-types, and Mateo’s Metal Claw was their surefire path towards victory. All their training in the Glimwood Tangle was finally coming to fruition.

Dolly and Mateo had breezed through Opal’s odd quiz questions, her Weezing, and her Togekiss. His stat boosts were blazingly high, thanks to Dolly answering all of Opal’s questions correctly (well, thanks to Mateo knowing the answers and then telling them to Dolly). He was doing excellently, which was a relief, as Dolly was nervous for his first big battle. While Jackson may be unrefined during travel, his power and fiery nature blazed forth in battle. And, while Mateo was refined during travel, Dolly was nervous he would be cautious against Opal and her Pokémon. That fear was quelled, however, as Mateo confidently and succinctly tore through Opal’s first two Pokémon. Her Mawile was up next, then after that, the Gym’s fourth and final Pokémon, and after that, another victory. Perhaps she could stay for Hop’s match afterwards. She smiled at the thought.

“You’re goin’ down!” her Riolu grinned, pumping his fists as the Mawile appeared before them. “I’ll beat you just like I did your other two mates, and then me an’ Dolly will get a Gym Badge!”

Mateo surged forth again with a Metal Claw. If Dolly remembered correctly, Mawile was Steel and Fairy-type, so Mateo’s Steel-type attack wasn’t as effective as it was on the others. The two bounded back and forth, weaving around each other on the turf.

Dolly calculated as they bounded around the pitch, jumping and dodging, attacking and defending. None of Mawile's attacks were super effective against Mateo, so just a surge of power from her Riolu, and Opal would be down to her last Pokémon. She didn’t know of any other Steel and Fairy-type combination Pokémon, so Mateo could handle whatever the Gym Leader threw out next just fine.

He was nimble and quick, skidding under the arms of the Mawile as it lurched forth. All those races with Jackson must have trained him just as well as the wild Pokémon did, because very rarely did this Mawile land an attack on Mateo. Just a few more hits and it would be defeated - it looked like it had a weak spot between its shoulder blades. It was risky, but with how fast and sharp Mateo’s movements were, he would-

She was torn from her calculations when Mateo’s taunts were cut short. Mawile’s massive jaw crunched down onto Mateo, and flung him with incredible force into the ground. Pebbles flung into the air, no longer lodged in the ground thanks to the crater that formed beneath Mateo. He took a shaky breath, the shock of the first hit shooting through him. The adrenaline was pumping, tensing and pulsing, as Mateo made eye contact with the Mawile.

The Mawile lurched forth, sprinting at full speed. Mateo was scrambling, clawing, kicking himself out of the crater he was buried in. The Mawile was only a foot away, and Mateo’s pupils went wide.

“Dolly, help!”

Dolly surged forward, but Mawile was faster. Its jaws lurched forward again, gripped Mateo’s trembling body, and whipped him into the wall of the stadium.

There was a horrifying crunch, and Mateo crumbled to the pitch. He was always small for a Riolu, and that was even more apparent when Dolly saw him lying on the ground, a small spot of blue against the massive wall of the stadium.

“Mateo!” she screamed, breaking into a sprint. 

Again, the Mawile was faster. It made it to Mateo first, and with another terrible crunch, flung him back to the middle. His small body finally rolled to a stop in the center of the pitch.

Dolly’s fingers began to prick. They pricked like the voices in the air, the voices around the stadium, the voices in her head. They pricked and buzzed and shot into her arms.

Time was heavy as Dolly tried to run to Mateo. It was like a terrible dream - her shoes could find no traction in the grass of the pitch, her legs like sand, unable to hold her weight as she tried to move, as they spilled out from beneath her. She was pushing through water, everything grayscale, except for that shot of blue that was, too, slowly fading.

Opal called her Mawile to her side, watching the Trainer before her crumble beside her Riolu like sand.

The terrible numbness was shifting, pricking in her arms, her chest. It tore into her heart, into her head, as she recalled the pain and the torture of this feeling not long ago. An Eevee falling, a Noibat falling, a Wooloo falling, and now, here in her arms, she heaved out a breath as the stabbing tore into her heart. Because there, in her arms, was Mateo, fallen, and already cold.

The air was waterlogged, murky and swallowing, slowing down time and everything around her. Then, only one thing shot through the water, shot into her head.

_“Dolly, help!”_

The words, the memory, it played over and over and over in her mind like a scratched record, rewinding at the worst part again and again. Louder, louder, and louder it played as she stared at her Riolu. It reverberated through the metaphorical water she was in and she felt like she was slowly seeping into the ground.

“Mateo…?” she whispered, pulling him onto her lap. 

She ran her fingers through the fur on his face. Those big, orange eyes that often gazed up at her with so much love were now closed. And they always would be, thanks to her.

“A shame.”

Dolly’s head whipped up.

“Televised to the entire nation,” Opal sighed, still gazing from across the pitch. 

Her brow was furrowed, eyes soft. Even she was grayscale. Dolly was still holding Mateo in her arms as the stabbing in her veins grew stronger.

“He’s dead, isn’t he?”

Gasps erupted from the stands. 

“Send out your next, we’re almost done here.”

Dolly still felt underwater, still felt outside of time, but the part of her that was still breathing obeyed. She returned Mateo to his Poké Ball, though her arms still felt heavy without his weight in them. She sent out Jackson.

She was stunned into nothing, only watching as her Raboot blazed forth. Jackson bounded forward, hardly needing her direction as he defeated the Mawile with ease. She was in shock and he was enthralled in the battle, so neither noted the screams and shouts from the stands to stop.

The words from the crowd swam up to Dolly’s face, snaked over her body, wove into her hair. _Abusive._ _Disqualify. Monster._ Drinks and banners were being thrown onto the pitch, at her, at her Pokémon. But her body was too far to notice, and her mind was too far to care.

Opal sent out her Alcremie and both their Pokémon Dynamaxed. Again, it didn’t take long, nor through much instruction, for Jackson to throw powerful attacks. Dolly squinted at the heat that Jackson produced, shielded her face from the glitter that fell from the Alcremie. Opal’s Alcremie started to crumble, bits of frosting falling to the earth as it shrunk from its Gigantamaxed form, already defeated. 

Jackson began to shrink as well. The grayscale of the stadium erupted, shining and shimmering from the red of Dynamaxing to the blue of evolution. The color returned to Dolly as the crowd gasped. Dolly’s Raboot finally evolved into Cinderace. 

Jackson stared at his paws, moving his body as he shook out his legs and arms. A grin spread across his face as he turned to Dolly.

“Finally! Right at the end of a battle, too, awesome! That’ll be some nice views for the fans back home!” he grinned, bouncing up and down. He pointed to the Rotom camera fluttering around them, then he turned to Dolly. “Maybe now that I’m bigger and stronger, I’ll finally beat Mateo in a race! Send him out, he’s got to see this!”

Dolly stared at him, though she still felt like she was sinking. Jackson stopped bouncing, still looking into Dolly’s eyes with a grin. 

“Go on, send him out! He’s got to be a Lucario by now, too, right? He probably beat all those other Pokémon and evolved, he’s so ace! If not, then I’ll definitely beat him, probably in an arm wrestle, too,” he laughed. “Our matches will be legendary for sure!”

Dolly stood frozen as the crowd turned from yells and jeers to an anticipatory murmur. The noise surged through the stadium like a wave in a storm, growing and pulsing. It throbbed as the Trainer and Pokémon stood across from one another.

Jackson took a step closer, and Dolly started to shake her head. She felt like she was being ripped back and forth from the storm bulging in the water, in the noise around her.

“Dolly,” he said again. “Send him out.”

The tears fell freely, quickly, tumbling from her eyes as she could only shake her head at her partner. She moved her glasses up, setting them on her hair as she wiped at the tears. The noise of the crowd was throbbing, pulsating, just like how her heart wrenched with each beat.

Jackson’s eyes widened. A mix of horror shot through them, then disbelief, then despair, then fury. They flashed through his eyes like gunshots, each emotion replaced as quickly as it came. 

“No.” he said, taking a step back. Dolly could only stand and stare at her partner glaring back into her eyes.

“NO!” he yelled, gripping her shirt collar with his paws. “Send him out Dolly! Tell me he’s still fine, tell me he’s still alive!” 

A choked sob escaped her throat as she only shook her head, tears falling freely to the pitch below. His grip loosened as he stared at her in horror.

“Dolly.”

The tears fell, streaming down her face. The noise in the crowd was ripening, ready to burst. The only color she could see was the blazing red that was burning in his eyes.

_“Tell me he’s still alive.”_

She opened her mouth, and nothing escaped. She tried again, and again, watching the fear flash in Jackson’s eyes. She couldn’t speak through the water that was sliding down her throat, choking her slowly. She had to will it with everything she had to say the words she wished she didn’t know.

“I can’t,” she choked out. “He’s gone.”

Jackson was frozen. He too, was now part of her grayscale world. No fire blazed in him and his heart barely beat. 

Then, it was like a single drum beat. A single sound reverberated throughout the stadium, throughout the water, throughout the grayscale. Jackson slowly reached back, then through the water, through the noise, through the gray, he reared back, and his fist shot through the water. It wasn’t slowed by anything. Jackson had reared back, and punched Dolly in the face. His fist hit her eye and she stumbled back, falling to the ground, sloshing through the water around her. Jackson returned to his Poké Ball as she gripped her face, her eye already starting to swell shut.

The dam had burst. The waves that were throbbing, that were pulsating against her eardrums, had finally erupted as the crowd shouted, as they stood and hurled garbage onto the pitch. Banners and drinks and shouts were thrown at her, tearing at her, shooting into her skull. The curses and insults and objects hurt just as badly her eye did, and they flashed and blinded her too.

She could only sit there, crying into her hands as the entire world watched. Watched her Pokémon die. Watched her starting partner attack her out of rage, fear, hurt. Watched her as she sat, a broken girl crying in the middle of the pitch.

Opal walked forward and held out a hand. After a moment Dolly took it in hers, still holding her other hand over her face. The color was now too saturated, too contrasted, too bright. It was grainy and loud, like a photo that had been over exposed.

“Your pink is still lacking, but you’re an excellent Trainer with some excellent Pokémon. Good try, but still not what I’m looking for.”

Dolly could do nothing but look back at the nonchalant woman before her.

“Don’t worry yourself about it, child. It’s just a matter of my preference. I’ll find the next Gym Leader elsewhere. Too bad about all that, but here’s a Fairy Badge for your efforts.”

Opal held out the gold Badge to her, but Dolly didn’t even want it. She didn’t want proof. Still on autopilot, she took it anyway, the jeers and cries still shouting from the stands.

The pair made their way off opposite ends of the pitch.

She changed in a daze, peeling off her soaked Challenger shirt. Someone threw their drink at her on her way out, and the syrupy liquid was sticking to her skin. She shoved her uniform in her bag and pulled on her old clothes, zipped up her old jacket.

Dolly sighed weakly, her eye still throbbing where Jackson hit her. She deserved it. She didn’t blame him. Not a single bit. She trudged into the atrium of the Stadium, staring intently at the ground until she made her way back into the cool air of Ballonlea.

She finally pulled it out and gazed at the Fairy Badge in her hand. The pink twinkled, she let out another sob, and made her way to the Pokémon Center. 

And again, just like all the Pokémon before him, the nurse said there was nothing to be done for Mateo. 

The beautiful colors of Ballonlea had dulled.

The Chinchous and Morelulls drifted around her, floating through the air like ethereal stars. They moved as slowly as she did, as if they could feel the despair settled in the bottom of her heart. They moved as if they could feel how it seeped into her arteries like a murky liquid, wetting every inch of her chest, every fiber in her bones. How it sat loosely, thinner than water, shaking with each movement, yet engulfing her entirely. The Pokémon’s dancing glow cast warped shadows beneath her, and they danced as well, as if alive. One shadow grew larger than the others, and Dolly looked up.

“I’ve got a few errands to run in Hammerlocke,” Opal said. “Care to join me for the journey? If you’re headed for the next Gym stadium, you’ll need to get to Hammerlocke, too, after all.”

Dolly couldn't bring herself to speak. The energy within her was sapped the second Mateo hit the ground. It took energy to even lift one leg to walk, much less battle on the pitch. She looked up to Opal and nodded. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if they went together, as it was easy to keep pace with Opal, and she didn’t have much energy to walk anyway. They started their way to the forest, walking in silence.

“They say that Pokémon buried in the Glimwood Tangle are blessed with a happy afterlife,” Opal said after a while. “Only if they’re buried beneath a green mushroom, of course.”

Dolly’s heart sank.

“Or, a pink mushroom if they were the victim of a curse.”

Dolly stopped in her tracks as Opal continued. She shook her head and fell back into step with Opal.

So, Opal knew about it too, then. Dolly tucked her hand into her pocket and rubbed Mateo’s Poké Ball with her thumb. She supposed it was only natural, after all. Her outburst at Motostoke was quite the spectacle for local media, and it didn’t take long channels to catch up on what might be going on with her. Even throughout her travels, she often heard and saw little snippets of the next big conspiracy theory surrounding her and her team and what the Nuzlocke Curse could be. At first her mum called her every few hours to check up on her, making sure that she wasn’t actually drinking Tentacruel poison like an article she read had said.

Mateo was the first of her Pokémon to have his death advertised to all of Galar. It hadn’t registered for her; she had only returned Mateo to his Poké Ball and continued the battle. She didn’t even process the fact that others might have caught on, especially since her visit to Motostoke last. News was spreading quickly about the Gym Challenger with the strange condition. That thought was confirmed when she ran to the Pokémon Center and caught the tail-end of a newscast replaying her battle already:

A cry from her Riolu. Her yelling his name. They even got the bit where Jackson hit her.

“Most all of Galar knows about it now, I’m afraid,” Opal continued, as if reading Dolly’s thoughts. She stopped suddenly, turning to Dolly. “The question is, do you?”

Dolly looked up to Opal, her blue eyes piercing Dolly’s brown. As she gazed at her down her long, crooked nose, something seemed to flash in the eyes of Opal.

“A little,” Dolly replied, unable to keep eye contact with the Gym Leader before her. “Mr. Kabu told me a bit too when I was in Motostoke after… after I lost my first few Pokémon. I figured some stuff out on my own when I was younger, and an odd hostel owner told me stuff too.”

“Then you should know that you aren’t the only one to have dealt with this,” Opal said, turning on her heel again. They continued down through Ballonlea, finally making it to the threshold of the Glimwood Tangle.

“That’s what Mr. Kabu said too, he knew a girl named May when he lived in Hoenn who had it,” Dolly replied, stepping over another branch. “And the Champion of another region maybe had it, too.”

Opal let out a small hum and they continued down the forest path. As they walked deeper into the forest, the world around them seemed to exist only of tall, dark trees and bright, neon glows. The winding trail thinned as they walked, and Dolly found herself ducking under branches and over stumps, all of which Opal seemed completely unaffected.

“I knew a boy who had it too, long ago,” Opal said wistfully, gazing up at the tops of the trees. Spritzees chirped and hopped from branch to branch, singing mournful songs. From their coats wafted what looked like glitter. As soon as they hit Dolly’s nose, she began feeling nostalgic.

“Thinking of him takes me back,” Opal sighed. “Oh, Elio.”

“He had the Nuzlocke Curse?” Dolly asked, stepping over another branch.

“He did,” Opal affirmed, still looking to the tops of the trees.

Dolly looked to the forest floor ahead. She hadn’t noticed before, but it seemed little Pokémon were ducking in and out of the trunks, brush, and mushrooms, all scuttling around to remove debris from Opal’s path... Even if it meant shoving something in front of Dolly’s feet in the process. That explained why there had been dozens of logs that she tripped over that she could have sworn weren’t there before.

“We met when my father took me along for one of his business trips. Oh, we had such a grand time on those islands,” Opal mused, her eyes looking far into the distance. “He told me about his Curse one night, during many of our moonlit rendezvous.”

At a quick glance Opal almost seemed younger, her skin radiating in a way Dolly hadn’t seen before. Dolly nodded, then stumbled as a Phamtump fluttered around her feet.

“It took a while for me to coax it out of him. I had always known he was different, grand in some way. That’s what attracted me to him, of course, and him to me, but my feminine wiles got the best of him. It only took him so long before he couldn’t resist my beauty and charm,” she added, still plodding along the forest path. “I know it is surprising, but I was even more beautiful than this at one point,”

They walked in silence, until Opal paused and cleared her throat.

“Uh, right. Right of course, that’s quite hard to picture though, Ms. Opal,” Dolly spluttered. Opal narrowed her eyes. “...Th-that you could be even more beautiful… than you are now...”

That seemed to satiate her, and they continued forward.

“He told me of similar symptoms you seem to be facing. Namely, the sudden death of many of his Pokémon.”

Dolly flinched at the word. 

“At the time, however, he was not afflicted by them. He could battle and lose, and his Pokémon would be right as rain after a quick trip to the Pokémon Center.”

Dolly’s head whipped around to Opal.

“He overcame it, Dolly, so may you,”

Dolly hiked her backpack up higher on her back, looking to the ground intently. So, it was possible to break the Curse, Kabu was right. Her and May’s stories weren’t just a fluke or a coincidence, but they seemed to be connected. This Elio bloke seemed to have the same effect, at least when he lost Pokémon battles. If the Nuzlocke Curse afflicted Trainers throughout the surrounding nations, perhaps her condition wasn’t so lonely after all. If Elio overcame it, and Kabu was pretty sure May overcame it, and maybe that Champion overcame it, then perhaps these visions she was having weren’t so mad after all. Maybe they too had guiding voices calling them to break the Curse.

“Do you know how he did it, Ms. Opal?”

At this, Opal sighed, and looked again to the tops of the trees.

“He beat the Champion of that region, but that’s all I knew. I had to leave before I heard the end of his story. My father’s business conference ended before we anticipated, so I was whisked away. It wasn’t before we spent one final night together though, alone on the beach. Oh, to this day, that was one of the best nights of my young life. Never have I held another man without seeing that passion in Elio’s eyes the night we-” she paused, glanced down to Dolly, and cleared her throat. “...Never mind.”

Dolly wasn’t focusing on Opal but was instead thinking back to the hostel in the Wild Area. Beat the Champion, break the Curse. All these stories were corresponding, and Dolly’s lonely heart settled into the melancholy confidence that she would continue this journey to the end. She would do it for Mateo, for other Trainers like her, just as much as she would do it for herself.

“Thanks for telling me about this, Ms. Opal. This extra perspective is helping me feel like I really can overcome this Curse. But… where are we going?” Dolly asked, looking behind her. 

Even through her one good eye she noticed the trail had been lost for a while now, and she couldn’t even remember the last time she had seen it. This certainly wasn’t the path she and Hop had taken into Ballonlea.

“You’ll see.” 

They trekked through the Glimwood Tangle, Opal still miraculously keeping her same slow and steady pace, never once tripping or stumbling along the way. Dolly, on the other hand, was the polar opposite. Her skin was riddled with little cuts and bruises where she stumbled over a stump, into a thorn bush, or was once smacked in the face with a tree branch by an Impidimp. It hit her right in the eye, and she saw stars again. She sighed, accepting how that bruise would probably last a while.

Throughout it, though, Dolly reminisced on the similarities between Opal and Kabu’s stories of these Trainers from other regions. Her mind wandered to the complexities of this Curse, and yet the simplicity of it as well. There seemed to be a handful of ‘rules,’ almost, that each afflicted Trainer must follow. Such simple rules with such dire consequences. And all for what? 

Dolly wished she could have met this May and this Elio and ask them the thousand burning questions that dwelled within her. Could they talk to Pokémon? How many partners did they lose, and how did they deal with it? Did they have these dreams and visions as well? Did they break the Curse forever, or did it come back? What spurred them to break it, and how did they find the strength to continue? That hostel owner probably wouldn’t answer any of them, even if Dolly was correct in her prediction of her identity.

These questions buzzed around her head like a thousand Beedrills. It wasn’t until Dolly noticed a soft pink glow slowly growing stronger that they stopped, and Dolly almost ran into Opal’s back.

“And we’re here,” Opal smiled, looking back at Dolly. 

With a gesture of her arm, Dolly followed Opal into the clearing before them. Her breath caught in her throat. Before them was the largest mushroom Dolly had ever seen. It towered over the others around it, almost as tall as the dark trees of the forest. It cast a warm pink glow over the clearing and through the leaves of the trees around it, its cap emitting the ethereal beams of light. Although the Glimood Tangle was a strange place, Dolly felt that this place was even more different, even more strange. It was almost as if they were stepping into another world entirely - a world that existed of only the protective light of this massive pink mushroom.

All sorts of Pokémon flitted about the clearing, those native to the Glimwood Tangle, and some that Dolly didn’t even recognize. They danced and played around in the grass, singing songs and giggling as they chased each other about, all under the giant mushroom overlooking the clearing. The clearing was almost a perfect circle, with the trees, berry bushes, and thickets of grass cut symmetrically around. Little white flowers and small glowing mushrooms bloomed throughout the clearing, adding texture and a bit of glitter around the base of the massive mushroom sitting in the middle. Puppy Pokémon, what looked like a hedgehog Pokémon, and other dancing flowers scampered around them, unafflicted by their entrance to the clearing. 

As she and Opal approached the center, it seemed to Dolly that they weren’t the first Trainers to visit the sacred site. She could faintly pick out little rocks with names carved into their surface neatly lined beneath the pink mushroom. The names each carried the unknown weight of memories. She looked back up to Opal.

“Is this for…?” she asked faintly.

Opal nodded. Dolly could feel the weight of these headstones as she rubbed over Mateo’s Poké Ball again. A rumble came from her bag and Jackson appeared before them, brow furrowed as they both looked to Mateo’s Poké Ball.

“Jackson,” Dolly started, voice trailing off. 

The look in his eyes was complete despair, brokenness. His gaze never wavered from the Poké Ball in her hand. She reached to return him to his Poké Ball until Opal set her hand on her wrist. 

“Let him watch. Let him grieve and have his closure as well.”

Pokémon from the forest appeared again, and one of them handed Dolly an old, rusted shovel. When she took it, she wondered how many other grieving Trainers held its handle. How many of them cried? How many of them held it in anger? She only knew how she felt as she broke the ground with it, and laid Mateo to rest. 

Jackson patted down the last few tufts of earth, smoothing it over nicely for his friend. In the glowing pink light, Dolly watched as a few sparkles fell from his eyes, landing on the grave beneath him. Where they landed, leaves began to sprout, and little white flowers already started to bloom.

Dolly faintly wondered about the other white flowers scattered about the clearing.

He stood, wiped his face, and returned to his Poké Ball, never once meeting Dolly’s eye.

Opal turned, and Dolly gave the grave one final goodbye before turning away for the last time. Perhaps it was only a shadow cast by the glowing mushrooms, or the trees swaying around it, but in the corner of her eye, Dolly glimpsed the faint shadow of a small Pokémon to join those playing in the clearing, waving his final goodbye as well.


	15. Butterfree & Floss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For those who have been keeping up with the story since I first published it, you may have noticed that I’ve been posting twice a week. Twice a week is a bit too much for me right now, & after editing some future chapters, I can’t keep up with that pace :( Posting will go down to once a week, and perhaps if I catch up with writing, I may go back to twice a week. Quality over quantity though, of course! And for those who have just found this story, ignore everything I just said, and welcome to chapter 15! Into Hammerlocke we go… – missusk
> 
> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Sap (Vikavolt), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Dia (Meowstic)

**Chapter 15 - Butterfree & Floss**

Opal dropped Dolly off at the entrance of Hammerlocke earlier that day. After a few errands and an odd episode with Opal carting Bede back to Ballonlea, Dolly and her team stopped for some lunch in one of the gardens of Hammerlocke. She had shared with them the news about Mateo, and she realized that as they settled in for lunch, she didn't have much of an appetite, nor did many of her Pokémon.

It had been a while since they last lost a team member, so the pain was fresh for all of them. They all felt the sorrow, so they were conscious of how Dolly’s heart throbbed just as her black eye throbbed. None of them asked about it, because they all already knew. They had pieced it together as Jackson sat alone, staring at the ground, snarling at anyone who dared to come close. 

Dolly and her team ate, but just barely. Eventually, they returned to their Poké Balls as Dolly and Jackson wove through Hammerlocke. Perhaps the fresh air and exercise would do him well, though part of her expected him to run away.

“Where’we off to now?” Jackson asked, kicking a stone across the cobblestone road. It was the first time he spoke to her after the Ballonlea Gym. He still hadn’t looked at her since then, however.

“A city called Circhester,” she answered. “It’s through some new places, like some old ruins and then some snowy trails. Should be full of tough Ice-type Pokémon. With you around, it should be easy catching one,”

“Wicked,” he said. “Can’t wait for you to swap Dia out and I can get away from her, she’s a right bi-”

“Jackson!” Dolly huffed as she stopped them in the road. “You can be angry, you can be upset, and you can take it out on me, but you can’t take it out on your teammates. I know she’s not your favorite, but we’ve got to try to get along with everyone on the team.”

He shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest, kicking another stone down the road. No one kicked it back, and his shoulders drooped. 

Dolly let out a sigh. No, his world was still grayscale, the color had not returned, nor would it ever at this rate.

“Come on, we need to talk.”

They clambered up a few staircases until they were sitting at the edge of the roof of one of the houses overlooking the Wild Area. The people bustled about, unaware of the Trainer and her Pokémon sitting above. The sun was glinting down on them, shimmering against the golden fencing and edging. It seemed unfair, how bright the sun was.

“I know you’re upset now that Mateo’s gone,”

Jackson kicked his feet over the edge of the roof, swaying them back and forth. His arms were still folded across his chest.

“I’m upset too, and it came out of nowhere,” Dolly continued. “It’s never easy to stomach, and it never will be. I’m trying my best, Jackson, and it’s so, so, _so_ hard, but I’m clinging to what we said after Motostoke: that we can learn about this Curse, and that we can help other Trainers and other Pokémon. Everyone who ever joins the team agrees to it, knowing full well what may happen. Mateo agreed to the risk as well - he wanted to fight alongside us. I miss him more than anything too, but we’ve said our goodbyes and it’s time to try to move on,”

“Easy for you to say!” Jackson burst out.

He stood and glared at her, that same anger blazing in him again. Dolly thought that although he was finally looking at her, she wished it wasn’t like this.

“He was my best mate! I finally had someone to play with, someone competitive like me,” he said. “He was my best mate, Dolly, I’ve never had a friend like him before, and now I never will!”

Jackson paced back and forth, furiously kicking another rock off the side of the building. They watched it fling off and tumble onto the road beneath them. He heaved out a breath and tore his paws over his ears before kicking another one. After that rock harmlessly rolled across the ground beneath them, Jackson sat back, folded his legs up, and rested his chin on his knees.

They sat in silence for a while, watching the pedestrians continue their days. Dolly sighed, thinking that although they were torn apart with grief, the world still turned. Jackson sniffed.

“No one else on the team even likes me…”

Her heart sank, that dirty water of despair leaking into her at his words. 

“Jackson, you know that’s not true,”

“Yes it is. They all think I’m annoying and they think I’m stupid,” he said, trying to discreetly rub his eyes with his paw. “Mateo was the only one I could talk to, besides you, and you probably hate me now, too. I hurt you and now you hate me.”

She saw a tear escape his eyes as he turned away from her, burying his face in folded arms. 

“Oh, Jackson,” she breathed.

She reached over and hugged him. After a second, he unraveled his arms and legs and clung to her jacket. She folded her arms around him, trying to embed into him every particle of love she had. Every bit and piece of affection that she had for her first partner was flourishing in her, and she tried to gently squeeze it into him. She stroked over his ears, rubbed his back, as her dear friend cried into her shirt. He was holding it all in for so long - not once had she seen Jackson release the sorrow that had built within him, only those small flowers had bloomed from his tears at Mateo’s grave.

“Jackson, never in a million billion years could I ever hate you,” she said finally, hugging her Cinderace tighter. “I can’t even express how much I love you - every single bit of you, no matter what you might have done when you were upset.”

Dolly stroked through his fur as they sat looking over the city. She curled around him, just like he used to curl around her head when they slept. She thought back to the moment he hit her. Dolly had never seen those emotions in Jackson before. Her silly, loyal, spitfire partner may have never experienced heartbreak until that moment. No wonder he reacted the way he did.

“It must have been scary, losing control like that, huh?”

He nodded into her jacket.

“I was just… so angry. I couldn’t think about anything, like my whole brain was just this hot white color…”

“And that’s why I don’t blame you - not one bit. I know if you weren’t experiencing that shock you would have never lashed out at me, ever.”

They sat on the roof of a Hammerlocke house as Jackson’s breathing slowed. She was rocking him slowly, trying to comfort him in every capacity she knew how. After a while, he sighed.

“I miss him,” Jackson said quietly.

Dolly nodded.

“Me too.”

More time passed as they watched the town move around them. The world still turned, and soon they would join again, but not quite yet, because slowly the color was returning. It was melancholy, pastel, and perhaps it would be for a while. 

“I’m sorry, Jackson,” she finally said into his fur. “I’m sorry for being a rubbish Trainer and not being more careful, for not realizing how much this was affecting you,”

He took a breath as well, still loosely holding onto her jacket. 

“You’re not a rubbish Trainer,” he muttered. “You’re real ace, everyone on the team thinks so,”

“And everyone on the team thinks you’re a fun and inspiring leader, who always challenges them to do their best.”

He lifted his head from her chest. 

“...Really?”

“Really really,” Dolly smiled, pulling back to look at him. “It’s as true as Nosepass are ugly and it’s just as true that Rosa has bad morning breath, no matter how many times she denies it. Who else would lead our morning calisthenics? Hudson? He doesn’t even have arms.” 

Jackson let out a chuckle and she wiped a tear from his cheek.

“You’re a natural leader, Jackson. Sap is gentle and protective, Hudson is silent and strong, Rosa has that blazing passion, but you are the one who leads them all. Your energy is contagious, and you always know what to do or say to make us smile. _You_ are the one who can boost the morale of our team _way_ better than I can - even I know that,” she said, then she squeezed him into a hug again. 

“I’m glad you picked me as your partner,” he said.

“You’re the one that picked me, remember?” she laughed. “Punched me in the face when we first met? No way I’m not taking a Pokémon that passionate!”

Jackson laughed again, and wiped his face with his paw. Dolly lightly bumped his cheek with her knuckles. 

“I love you, buddy,” she said.

“I love you, too,” Jackson smiled, bumping hers in return.

“And either way, I kinda like having a black eye. Makes me feel like a badass,” she grinned. “Maybe I should start wearing more leather, too, what do you think? Maybe start driving a motorcycle?”

“You can’t afford a motorcycle,” Jackson laughed. “And you sweat too much to wear leather,”

“Hey! You better watch it, mister,” she laughed. “I’d be mad if you weren’t right. I do sweat a lot, thanks for noticing.”

He laughed again, shoving at her arm.

“But Jackson, thank you for being a steadfast partner. We’ll keep Mateo in our hearts, and we’ll lean on what he taught us while he was here. We’ll be attentive to each other’s feelings like he was. If he showed you how to be a best mate, then use that knowledge to care for others. I know that’s what I’m going to do to be a better friend to you from now on. If you ever want to talk, or do something, just you and me, let me know, okay?”

Jackson nodded. Then, she slipped her hand into her pocket and took out a piece of cloth. She had held onto Mateo’s bandana, the one that she bought for him in Stow-on-Side, waiting for the right time to offer it to Jackson. His lip quivered and the tears tumbled again as she tied it around his arm.

“Now,” Dolly said, standing and dusting herself off. “What do you say we go and catch ourselves a couple nice new team members? Give you another chance to show someone the ropes? Maybe a pretty Gardevoir? This is where I would wink, but it would just look like I was blinking.”

“Yeah whatever,” he laughed, shoving her arm again.

They hugged again, took a couple deep breaths, and Dolly returned Jackson to his Poké Ball. It didn’t seem so strange anymore that the sun was shining brightly. She headed back down the staircase, surprised to Sonia waiting at the bottom.

“Heya, Dolly! How are you holding up?” she asked, grimacing at Dolly's black eye. “Saw what happened in Ballonlea, I’m so sorry about your Riolu.”

Dolly heaved a sigh and gave her a shrug. 

“We’re dealing with it the best we can.”

“Let me know if I can do anything to help,”

Dolly nodded and Sonia lifted her hand to twirl it around her hair. 

“I’ve got some information you might find interesting, though. I’ve been doing some research on the ruins in Stow-on-Side, about those sword and shield Pokémon. Like, what kind of Pokémon were they, and where they could be now.”

“There’s still so many questions,” Dolly nodded. “But I learned something interesting too, as I was coming back from Ballonlea. Apparently, Opal knew somebody who used to have the Nuzlocke Curse. I don’t know if he had any visions, but Opal said he broke the Curse.”

Sonia’s face broke into a grin. 

“Well that’s certainly something to be excited about! So, we know it’s possible, then,” she said as she looked about the town, setting her hand on her hip. “I was thinking about taking another look at the tapestries in-”

Suddenly the ground shook, and a deafening explosion came from the Hammerlocke Stadium. Dolly whipped around to the source of the noise.

“What was that?!” Sonia yelped, stumbling as the ground shook again.

“I think it came from the stadium!”

“That’s where Chairman Rose’s power plant is, isn’t it?”

A beeping came from Sonia’s pocket and she picked her phone up out of it. It was vibrating madly, and Sonia’s eyes grew wide. 

“A Power Spot?! If I’m getting readings… does that mean Dynamaxing is possible here…?”

“Hey, Sonia! And Dolly, too! You felt the shaking, right?” 

Dolly turned to see Leon and Raihan both running up to them.

“Seems Chairman Rose is testing something again,” Raihan said, bracing himself against the wall as another tremor shook the ground.

“This is bad!” Sonia said, whipping her head to Leon. “Pokémon might start Dynamaxing right in the middle of Hammerlocke!”

“Is that so?” Leon replied, crossing his arms. “I can make sure the chairman knows.”

Dolly glanced at Raihan, who was already looking at her. After another second, he didn’t break eye contact, and Dolly tore her gaze back to her two bickering friends.

“You’ll just get lost, Leon, I’m going too!” Sonia huffed, setting her hands on her hips. She turned back to Dolly. “I’m really looking forward to seeing you compete in the finals, so leave the investigation on the quaking to us.”

“Head to Circhester and get that Gym Badge!” Leon said with a nod. Then, as he looked between her and Raihan, his grin faltered.

“I’ll make sure no one’s hurt down here,” Raihan added, tearing his gaze from Dolly.

Leon hesitated as he glanced between the two of them, his brow starting to furrow. It wasn’t until they felt another tremor that Sonia pulled him back to Hammerlocke Stadium.

It only took a second after Leon turned around before Raihan took two long steps toward her, standing only a foot away. Her breath caught in her throat as he grinned, showcasing fangs she hadn’t noticed before.

“There goes our hero. You alright, Dolly? Not hurt, I hope?” he asked, his eyes flitting about her body.

“No, I’m, um, I’m fine,” she said, more quietly than she anticipated. She forgot how intense those bright blue eyes were.

“Huh,” he muttered, scratching at his chin.

“What?”

“You’re even more stunning than I remember.”

Her voice caught in her throat. Dolly was suddenly very conscious of her throbbing black eye, her sticky hair from the drink that was thrown at her at the Ballonlea Gym, and the clothes she hadn’t washed in a while. Was he making fun of her? The last time they saw each other he said she had beautiful eyes, though.

If that was the case, then… Huh. Stunning. She’d never been called that before. After all the cruel words and names she’d been called recently, ‘stunning’ certainly wasn’t among them. She bit back a smile, looking into his eyes again.

“Um, really?” she asked as a blush crept up on her cheeks.

“I mean it,” he grinned. “You’re beautiful, Dolly.”

She breathed out a laugh as her cheeks grew warmer. No, she had never been called that before either. Well, by her mum, and Rosa, but those didn’t count. Her mum and Bellossom weren’t a tall and handsome man. Even though she was probably just as ugly and cruel as all those people said, it was kind of Raihan to try to make her feel better.

“You’re off to Circhester, yeah?” Raihan asked, taking a step back. When he did, her head seemed to clear. She nodded in response.

“Yeah, just a couple more Badges before getting one from you,” she grinned, cautiously glancing back up to him.

He grinned too and gave her a wink. 

“Ah, Miss Confident, huh? We’ll see about that. Won’t get a Badge from me if I’ve got anything to say about it. But then again,” he said, looking down at her through half-lidded eyes. “Perhaps I could be persuaded otherwise.”

Dolly’s heart kicked, and her cheeks flared red. Little pebbles scratched the pavement when she scuffed at them with her shoe, unable to meet Raihan’s eye.

“You um… you need to beat the Gyms to… to get Badges,” she mumbled. 

He raised an eyebrow at her, a bemused smirk making its way onto his face. 

“I never said you didn’t,” Raihan said. “Did you think I meant… something else?” 

Her thoughts scratched like a record as her eyes widened. His dangerous gaze was distracting as she tried to mumble out a retort, fumbling with her now-sweaty fingers. Raihan chuckled.

“Speaking of which, Dolly, I’ve been wondering - Could I tear you away from your Gym Challenge for an hour or two?” Raiahn asked. “Come get some coffee with me?” 

She finally glanced up to Raihan, who was looking at her so expectantly. Coffee…? If she had caffeine this late she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. Maybe he didn’t have that problem.

“My treat. Consider it a gift from your favorite Gym Leader,” he hummed, toying with the strings on his sweater.

She wasn’t sure if she had a favorite, but it would probably be Kabu before it was this guy. Kabu didn’t look at her like that, didn’t make her body feel... weird. But, she had to admit, Raihan was slowly making his way up the list, especially with how often he called her beautiful. Before she could answer, they heard a voice coming from the train station.

“Dolls!” 

Her head shot up and she saw Hop standing in the doorway to the station. A smile broke onto her face as she watched her friend wave vigorously - and a little ridiculously - from the entryway.

Hop trotted up to them and she could still feel Raihan’s eyes on her as she greeted her friend. They hadn’t seen each other since Ballonlea, and it was sufficient to say that she immediately felt more at ease with him there. The odd tension in the air seemed to fade the closer Hop stepped to them.

“And Raihan too?” Hop continued, looking up to the Gym Leader as they met in the street.

“Just making sure Miss Dolly here makes it to her next route safely,” Raihan nodded. “Don’t want her to get swallowed up by another quake.”

What happened to coffee? Probably for the best, though, she didn’t really like coffee anyway. Maybe he’d buy her a chocolate milk some other time. She watched Hop look from Raihan to her, his eyes squinting as he surveyed the short distance between her and the Gym Leader.

“Well that won’t be necessary, because I was just about to ask her myself,” Hop said as he turned to Dolly, his golden eyes blazing into hers. “So, Dolls, I trained up a bunch in the forest, beat Opal, and now I need you to come with me to-”

“Aw, people call you ‘Dolls’? You just keep getting cuter,” Raihan interrupted, looking down at her.

She watched as Hop’s mouth hung open, still forming the next word of his sentence. His brow twitched as he looked from her to Raihan.

“If by people you mean me,” Hop growled, crossing his arms.

She watched Hop glare as Raihan lazily lifted an eyebrow.

“People call me a lot of things,” Dolly interrupted, standing between the two. “Trust me on that one.”

“I’m sure,” Raihan continued, stepping an inch closer to her. He leaned down to her ear, still maintaining eye contact with Hop. “They probably all want to take you to coffee, too, huh Dolls?”

Her skin tingled, Raihan was standing awfully close. Dolly watched as Hop’s fists clenched and the furrow in his brow grew deeper. 

“Um, not really,” she said, still looking between the two. 

“Beautiful woman like you? That surprises me. Well, I wouldn’t be shocked if there was someone who was too scared to ask, since he was too much of a boy and not enough of a man.”

Hop’s jaw was tensing, but neither of them moved. She resisted the urge to slap her forehead and trudged toward Hop.

“Sure, I guess. Anyway, Hop, you were saying? ‘Come with me to Route 7,’ right?” she sighed, tugging on his sleeve. 

She had to pull pretty hard before he and Raihan broke eye contact. Was this some sort of dominance thing? Boys were so dumb. 

“Bye Raihan.”

“Bye Dolls,” Raihan grinned as Hop shot another glare at him.

She and Hop made their way to Route 7 and Hop was grumbling the entire way there. Dolly only managed to make out a ‘why was he standing so close,’ a ‘he can’t call you that, I call you that’ and a ‘he’s not a man he’s a predator,’ and then more incoherent grumbling. 

“Alright,” Hop huffed from beside her. “Finally, away from that guy. What’s his deal? What was he talking about coffee for, you don’t even like coffee... And why was he looking at you like that?” 

Hop threw a glare over his shoulder, eyeing Hammerlocke as if the city itself was out to get her.

“How am I supposed to know?” Dolly said. “I’m always confused when I’m around tall, dark, men, and Leon, Rose, and Raihan certainly all have those three traits in common.”

Suddenly he looked at her, brows furrowed. 

“Even Lee?” he said as his shoulders slumped. “I knew you had a weird crush on Rose, but Lee too...? _And_ Raihan…?”

Her heart leapt out to him and those sad, pitiful eyes. She wanted to tuck his lip back so it didn’t quiver like that.

“No! No, I don’t anymore, don’t worry. I mean, I did fancy Leon at one point, but it was more like, being starstruck, I guess. I got over it. Rose too,” she shrugged. “And Raihan...”

She looked at Hop again. Why was she defending herself like this? What did it matter?

“...Why do you care?” she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. 

Suddenly his eyes grew wide, and her good eye could barely make it out, but it seemed his cheeks grew a shade darker.

“I-I just, he’s my brother, that’d be weird, and, and, well Rose is like a hundred years old,”

“Oh no he’s not!”

“And Raihan, well, I just don’t trust him because Lee doesn’t trust him,” he grumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets.

She squinted her eyes - well, eye - again as he tugged at his collar.

“...I thought you liked Raihan? Thought he was cool? Aren’t he and Leon good friends?”

“Uh, he, uh, well they are,” Hop stuttered.

She took another step towards him and Hop stumbled backwards. Sweat was pricking on his brow. Often he was quick and clever, but that certainly wasn't the case today. Was the air thinner here? That’s what it seemed to Hop, especially the closer he stumbled to the railing behind him.

“You used to rave all the time about their matches, saying how you liked Raihan’s battle tactics?”

“W-well, I do, er, did, uh -”

“Don’t you have his League card somewhere?”

“Th-that’s hardly, I mean, I um,”

“So what’s your problem with him now?”

“I-I don’t have a problem with him,”

“You just said you don’t trust him.”

“I, uh, well, I mean…”

“What were you grumbling back there?” 

“I, I-I was, I was, um,”

“Why were you glaring at him?”

“Erm, I, uh, I was just-”

And there was the metal railing behind him. Hop was backed up, flush against it, unable to retreat any further from the girl or the questions looming before him. Hop’s face was flushed red at this point, still stammering out excuses and shifting his eyes to the side. He swallowed and glanced back down to her.

“What happened to your eye?!”

Dolly’s jaw dropped.

“You _just_ noticed that?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” she huffed, taking a step back.

“What happened?” he asked, leaning towards her. 

“Jackson hit me.”

Hop’s eyes widened again.

“He _hit_ you?! Dolls, that’s not okay, has he done it again? Or has he done it before? You need to tell me these things, did he hurt you anywhere else?”

Suddenly Hop was looking all over her, pushing her hair back, pulling up her sleeves, checking for rips in her clothes. He was riddling her with questions, poking about her body, stumbling through his sentences whenever she tried to speak. When he pulled her leg towards him, she tripped backwards, only for Hop to lunge forward to catch her.

“ _Hop,_ ” she huffed, clutching at his shirt. “You need to chill out.” 

“Whoops, sorry, I just, sorry,”

She heaved out a sigh, then a laugh. He lifted her up, but didn’t let go. His hands were firm on her waist as his eyes flit around her face, around her neck, her collar.

“I’m fine, really,”

“Are you sure?” he asked. 

“Ye-”

He started to ask a thousand other questions, only to stop when Dolly put her hand over his mouth.

“Hop? Hop. _Hop._ Stop talking.”

“Sorry,” he muttered through her fingers.

“I said I’m fine, please believe me. Jackson was really upset and didn’t know how to respond, so he lashed out. If it wasn’t me, it would have been whoever was in front of him. We talked about it, and we’re going to work on tactics for the future. I’m fine, I’m safe, really, I promise.”

Hop’s eyes softened and he nodded. 

“When I take my hand off your mouth you’re going to say ‘Okay, Dolls, sounds good,’ and then no more questions, got it?”

She felt him smile under her hand, then he nodded. Dolly moved her hand, raising an eyebrow.

“But are you sure you’re-”

She shoved her hand over his mouth again and raised her eyebrows at him. Hop rolled his eyes and she hesitantly moved her hand.

“Okay, Dolls, sounds good,” he said.

“Much better,” Dolly said, brushing her hands off. “Now that that’s over, what did you want me to come to Route 7 for? Do you want to battle?”

Hop grinned and nodded again. 

“That’s exactly it. You and I both know I’ve got to keep trying different strategies if I’m going to catch up to Lee. I want to be the one who beats the unbeatable Champion!”

Dolly gazed at her friend. It was all a little bittersweet as he continued. She had always known Hop’s dream was to beat Leon, but how he talked about it in Stow-on-Side never left her mind. It had always been his goal, sure, but she never really knew why. 

“Hop,” she started, setting her hands in her pockets. “I know why I’m doing the Gym Challenge, and I know you want to beat Leon, but… why?”

Hop paused, then stood straight again as he looked out over the bridge. She went to stand beside him as they looked over the Wild Area together. The wind tousled her hair as she watched Wingulls flap beneath them.

“Before we ever started out on this journey, I remember watching Lee on the telly,” Hop said, resting his arms on the bridge railing. “He was like a bright star, so strong I could hardly bear to look right at him. But now, I can tell just how strong he really is, and what he’s got that I haven’t… But I’m getting stronger, too. So, I think you know what’s coming, mate,”

She nodded and smiled, readying her stance as they took their places across from each other on the bridge. They were thrown into battle, and Dolly’s heart swelled as she watched Hop smile throughout it - much better than the last time they battled. Even though he continued to send out unfamiliar Pokémon (and still no Wooloo), she was impressed to see that Thwakey had finally evolved into Rillaboom. 

Jackson was on the verge of winning when Rillaboom attacked with a Drum Beating. Jackson dodged just in time, but the vines kept going, one slapping across Dolly’s leg and the other grazing her jaw. She fell backwards, hitting the ground with an ‘ _oof_.’

“Dolls!”

Hop rushed toward her, then fell to the ground beside her. He helped lift her off the ground as she clutched at her face again.

“Sorry!” Rillaboom called, rushing forward as well. “Still getting used to this form!”

Jackson stumbled to her side, watching as Hop reached for her face. She winced, her eye throbbing again. Yeah, that was going to bruise for a while. She had been hit in the face more times in these past weeks than she had in probably her entire life.

“Here, let me see,” Hop said, gently moving her hand from her face.

The throbbing was already subsiding as Dolly let him move her hand, watching his eyes flit about her face. Suddenly she realized how close they were sitting, how close his face was to hers, and how she probably looked like a swollen Lickilicky. As Hop surveyed her injury, Dolly vaguely wondered if he thought she was pretty. Then she wondered why she wondered that and shoved that wondering away.

“Oh, it’s not so bad,” he smiled, still holding her hand softly. He let go, and tilted her head up. “Does it hurt?”

“Um, kind of,” she said quietly, noticing again the bright specks of gold in his eyes. 

Guess that wasn’t just in the Glimwood Tangle. Neither were those Butterfree in her gut, and they were flapping full throttle when he looked at her like that, and then even more so when he tilted her jaw up like that. They’d been bruised up a ton before when they played together in Postwick, helping each other out with bandages and the like, so why was sitting so close to him so challenging now?

“Here,” Jackson said, pulling out disinfectant and a bandage from her bag.

“Thanks mate,” Hop said, taking the supplies from her Cinderace. “This’ll sting a bit, ‘k?”

Dolly nodded as he wiped at her jaw, the disinfectant cloth cleaning off the bit of blood from where the branch grazed her. She sat patiently, nervously, as Hop worked, peeling the bandage out of its wrapper and pressing it onto her face. Her heart kicked when he smiled, setting his hands down.

“Good as new. Did he get you anywhere else?”

She nodded, looking down to her legs. The vines had cut through the fabric of her leggings, and although it didn’t sting as much as the sensitive skin on her face, her leg certainly looked worse. The cloth was torn, splotches of raw red were peeking through, and a small splash of blood had trailed down to her ankle. Hop followed her gaze and air shot in through his teeth. 

“I-I can get it though,” she said, reaching forward for the bandage. 

He held it out of her reach. She grabbed at it again, only to have him catch her wrist and pin it on her lap. Her heart pounded when he stared into her eyes.

“Now _you_ need to chill out. Just let me do it, Doctor Hop is here to help.”

She tore her eyes away and pursed her lips. 

“Fine.”

He gently lifted the cloth of her leggings up higher, setting her legs onto his lap. He tore a new bandage open with his teeth, setting to work on disinfecting and wrapping the bandage around the cuts.

Yeah this was exactly why she wanted to do it herself. Did he really have to hold both her legs like that? What did he need to touch her thigh for? Her nerves were buzzing, and she tried to look at anything that wasn’t his face, his eyes, his brows pulled together in concentration.

Dolly glanced around. She could look at… the dirty bridge. Or she could watch Jackson try to discreetly pick his nose. Two great options. Her eyes kept flicking back to Hop, unfortunately drawn to him much more than she was drawn to the bridge or her apparently infantile Cinderace. Her heart fluttered when he bit his lip, tightening the cloth bandage around her leg.

“Dolls,” he sighed, finally sitting back. His other hand was still resting high on her knee. “Something tells me you’re a magnet for injury. Your eye, your jaw, yeesh. Anything else you need fixing up?”

She could only shake her head. Maybe he could make those Butterfree stop slapping at her innards. 

“Oh!” he shouted suddenly. “I almost forgot!”

Hop set her legs down gently, then scrambled to his bag and dragged it over to her. Dolly crossed her legs under her as he dug through its contents, trying to get a peek at whatever he was searching for. Jackson and Rillaboom had taken a seat by them as well, watching the two Trainers - Jackson with a lackadaisical grin, Rillaboom with a suspicious curiosity as he looked between the two.

“Here,” he grinned, pulling out a haphazard bundle. A little bow perched on top of mismatched cloth tied together with string. “Wrapping’s not too good, and it’s a bit late, but happy birthday to my best mate!”

Dolly’s jaw dropped - she completely forgot, when her actual birthday happened that was all the way in the Wild Area at that hostel, all the way when she first got Mateo. Her birthday was the last thing on her mind, especially with everything that had happened from the Wild Area to now, or even just Ballonlea to now. Her lip quivered and her heart swelled at the fact that he remembered.

“Aww, Hop, you didn’t-”

“Just open it.”

She grinned as she plucked off the little bow and tore apart the cloth wrapping. Her brows pulled together as she held the object in her hands.

“Floss?”

“So you don’t use my League card and waste what’ll be worth millions,” Hop shrugged.

Dolly’s jaw dropped again, then she finally let out a laugh and threw it at him. 

“You’re such a twit, I can’t believe you remembered that all the way from Route 3.”

Hop laughed too, falling back as he caught the floss pack.

“Okay okay, here’s your real present.”

He handed her another bundle - wrapped well this time - and sat back, setting his elbows on his crossed knees, head in his hands. She tore the paper off until all was left was a little box. She raised an eyebrow and glanced up at Hop, who was biting his lip in anticipation.

She lifted the lid and there sat five small, golden Pokémon charms: a Riolu, a Wooloo, a Noibat, an Eevee, and a Deerling. A breath escaped her lips.

“A merchant was selling them in Stow-on-Side,” Hop explained. “He had all kinds of Pokémon charms. I figured they could go on your necklace, something to keep them close to you forever, close to your heart.”

Dolly’s lip quivered as she looked at the little charms. Her eyes started to burn as her brow furrowed.

“I went back after watching your battle with Opal, and the merchant said he had every kind of Pokémon, so I can always go back for you, if you... if you ever want more.”

Dolly looked up at him, her hands trembling as the tears fell freely. Hop’s brow furrowed and he lifted his head off his hands.

“Was that - was that okay? I didn’t step out of line or anything, did- _hrrmph!”_ Hop’s sentence was cut short when Dolly launched herself onto him, toppling him over as she hugged him.

Through the fur of his jacket she managed out a ‘thank you,’ as she clung to him on the ground. He chuckled as he spit out her hair, and eventually lifted them both up. Dolly nestled into him, curling her arms around him with everything she had. He pat her back as she sniveled into the fur of his jacket, and she finally sat back, though her fingers were still clinging to him. 

“You even got one for Faline… Thank you so much, Hop. This is the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever gotten,”

Her lip started to quiver again, and Hop breathed out a laugh. 

“Don’t cry! Please don’t cry, Dolls, I didn’t buy it so you would cry,”

“Okay, I’ll stop,” she nodded as the tears still flowed freely. 

“These are awesome,” Jackson breathed, opening the little box again. He fiddled with the little Riolu charm, rubbing over the golden sheen with his paw. “Tell him I said thanks, too.” 

“Jackson says thanks too,” Dolly sniveled as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Dolls come on,” he said softly, wiping her cheek with his sleeve and setting her glasses straight. “You’re gonna bother all your face injuries.”

She nodded again, and as Hop motioned to move his hand, she wove their fingers together and rested their hands in her lap. 

“Really Hop, thank you.”

He glanced from her face, to their hands, then up to her face again.

“Put them on!” Jackson said, moving Dolly’s hair to get to the latch on her necklace. “He said they go on your necklace, right?”

Dolly slid the charms onto the golden chain. They twinkled next to the Pecha berry her mum gave her so long ago, its golden sheen shining in the sun. The clasp continued to fumble through her tear-soaked fingers, though.

“Here,” Hop said with a chuckle, pulling the chain from her fingers. 

He moved behind her as she pulled her hair to the side. In a swift click, her necklace laid neatly on her collarbone again. Her skin tingled where his fingers grazed, hesitating for half a second after he closed the clasp.

They both finally stood, brushing off the dirt from the bridge. Dolly snaked her arms around Hop’s waist, hugging him against her again. She squeezed him as hard as she could, hoping that the motion would express how truly thoughtful his gift was - how special he was.

“You’re my best friend, Hop, thank you,”

“Geez Dolls, I thought I was the touchy one between the two of us,” he laughed, patting her back again. 

He squeezed her in return, held on for another second, then let go. She glanced up at him and something shifted again in her heart. She vaguely wondered what Mateo would have said her aura was like. Super happy, yeah, but what else? What was this feeling that blossomed in her, magnifying and intensifying, whenever he so thoughtfully cared for her? Appreciation? Affection? Perhaps. Whatever it was, when it combined with the fluttering in her stomach, it was all a tad overwhelming.

“Probably shouldn’t spend all day here on this dirty bridge,” Dolly said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Circhester’s waiting, after all,”

Hop nodded, gazing at the new charms on her necklace. His eyes flitted back up to meet hers. 

“No more face injuries though, got it? And get some cream or something for your eye, not sure it was just tears oozing out of it.”

She smacked his arm as he laughed.

After a moment, Dolly pulled him against her again and then finally waved goodbye, watching curiously as his cheeks tinged just a bit darker as he turned toward Circhester.


	16. Wind, Hail, & Lightning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Sap (Vikavolt), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Dia (Meowstic)

**Chapter 16 - Wind, Hail, & Lightning**

_“FINALLY!”_ Dolly yelled into the air, pumping her fist. 

It was her eighth Ultra Ball, but there was no way she was letting go of that wild Corviknight. She healed him up and let him out for a proper introduction. He ruffled his feathers and dipped into a deep bow. 

“You have bested me in battle, I am now eternally at your service, Lady…” he paused, then glanced up at her.

“Uh, Dolly?”

The Corviknight stood to his full height. He seemed to chew the name over. 

“Dolly... Short for Dolores, I presume?” 

Dolly nodded in response. He bowed again, dipping even lower. 

“Lady Dolores I am honored and humbled to serve you here after in anything you need. Only say the word and I shall be by your side. I am Theodore, knight of the-”

“ _Lady Dolores_? Who does this guy think he is?” Jackson snickered, jabbing a thumb at Theodore. 

Hudson shrugged as Rosa looked him up and down and gave a brief nod of approval. The Corviknight’s red eyes flashed as he gazed down at Jackson.

“And you are…?”

Jackson opened his mouth to reply, only to have Theodore interrupt him.

“Lady Dolores’... lackey? Bellboy? A scrawny Pokémon as dirty as yourself certainly can’t be an actual part of my Lady’s team?”

Jackson’s mouth hung open, then he puffed up his chest and marched to stand in front of Theodore. His barely five-foot-frame wasn’t much compared to Theodore’s seven.

“ _Your_ Lady?! I’m actually her first ever _partner_ , thankyouverymuch,” he sneered. 

“Simply no knowledge of etiquette on this one, I see,” Theodore yawned, lazily looking down his beak to Jackson two feet below him. “Hard to believe someone as powerful and elegant as Lady Dolores would pick what I’m sure was the runt of the litter.” 

Fire blazed in Jackson’s eyes. Yep, Dolly thought, his color was back and now it was all red.

“You know anything about type advantages, _Theodore?_ ” Jackson growled, stomping closer. Dolly had to pull him back by the scruff of his neck. 

“Alright lads, that’s enough for one day,” she said, letting out a huff of air. This was going to be a long trek to Circhester.

“I would have much preferred a pretty Gardevoir…” Jackson grumbled, crossing his arms.

Dolly and her team set out through the wheat fields of Route 8. What she thought was going to be a nice and easy stroll was instead filled with squabbling between her oldest and newest partners, and a horrifying amount of climbing. Now was another good example of why sitting on her couch for years wasn’t aiding her in this journey… Jackson was running laps around her as he bound up and down the hills and ladders throughout the route, Dolly panting the entire time.

“Come on, Dolly, let’s get a shift on! The sun’s already starting to set,” Jackson whined. “We’ve barely covered any ground!”

Dolly wiped off the sweat that was saturating her forehead. 

“Easy for you to say,” she panted. “I feel like my legs are going to fall off.”

“Shall I carry you, Lady Dolores?” Theodore offered, swooping his wing out.

“She doesn’t need that,” Jackson replied, shoving himself under Theodore’s wing. “She needs the exercise. Just think of this as a great workout!” 

They climbed one more ladder, and Dolly plopped to the ground with a wheeze.

“Alright. That’s it, we’re setting up camp.”

After more sweating and panting, Dolly and her team set up their tent and had a crackling fire. They tucked themselves into a rock outcropping looking over Route 8. Dusk was beginning to settle over the area, and a few fireflies flitted in the air. Stars flickered in the indigo sky, peacefully watching over the swaying wheat and rugged rocks formations. Their camp was set beside the tunnel leading further into Route 8, and Dolly watched a few Pokémon scuttle in and out. She made eye contact with a Sneasel, only for it to disappear a moment later.

“So, my Dolly,” Rosa said, skipping over to her. “I have been taking time to think. You are a captivating and capable young woman. You must have a slew of suitors clamoring for your attention, yes? Where are they? I wish to meet them, approve of them, before any of them take your hand,”

“I concur,” Theodore added, nestling beside them. “He is valiant and brave, I assume? I have only known you briefly, but can only imagine what kind of king would ask for your hand in matrimony,”

“Oh, uh, n-not quite,” Dolly stuttered, stoking the fire.

“Then what is he like, my Lady? When shall we meet him?” Theodore asked, looking down at Dolly.

“No, that’s uh, that’s not what I meant,” she said, tucking her chin between her knees. “I mean I don’t have a slew of suitors. Or any, for that matter. It’s okay though, I’m used to it. I’m kind of boring, and I’m not pretty or anything, so I kind of gave up on that... Especially since I’ve got this huge scratch on my face and a gross black eye. Now I’m just focusing on being a good Pokémon Trainer instead,”

“Nonsense!” Theodore cawed, ruffling his feathers. “To say you are not enrapturing is akin to saying the sun will not rise, Jackson has manners, and the ocean has no waves! I cannot sit idly by while my Lady thinks so little of herself.”

Jackson looked up.

“Hey!” 

“Yes, Señor Teo is right,” Rosa agreed, interrupting Jackson’s retort. “Do not try to change the subject to your Trainer-ship. I have always believed you were quite lovely, and you have proven to me your heart is lovely as well. Why do you not believe you are worthy of pursuit?”

“I mean, the last time anyone was interested in me was a long time ago and he said I was only average looking at best,” Dolly shrugged. “Kids in school said I had an ugly laugh, a weird shaped head... Ever since that I never really thought anything different. I just kind of assume people are trying to make me feel better if they say anything else.”

Then, she sighed, poking at the fire.

“Plus, I just… I don’t really want to get my hopes up.”

“What about that Hop lad, with the purple hair?” Hudson asked from across the fire. “The one who kept holding your hand in that forest? He’s always staring at you whenever he’s around.”

“Yeah!” Jackson quipped. “Even that Spritzee said you had cooties or something way back in the Glimwood Tangle! Mateo said your auras-”

“It said ‘they were cuties,’ Jackson, not that they had ‘cooties,’” Hudson sighed.

Rosa whipped her head back to Dolly. A devious grin inched onto her face and Dolly quickly looked to the ground, careful to hide the color rising to her cheeks. 

“He’s uh, he’s just a friend,” she stammered.

And he was. He was just a friend who was funny and kind and caring and happened to have a beautiful smile that for some reason recently made her feel simultaneously supported and weaker in the knees.

“Holding hands?” Rosa hummed, trotting up to Dolly. She peeled Dolly’s arms away from her face and let out a giggle. “And you enjoyed it, didn’t you, señorita? I can feel it in the air, and I can see it on your face!”

“N-no! It’s not like that,” Dolly sputtered, waving her hands. “He was just guiding me through the Glimwood Tangle is all, an Impidimp broke my glasses,”

“Ah, so he is noble and just! Guiding a fair damsel in need through a treacherous thicket,” Theodore beamed.

“Yeah, because you were distracted by making goo-goo eyes at each other.” Hudson sighed. “I was there too, remember? Both of you slept on me?”

“You _slept together?”_ Rosa yelped. “Señorita!”

“No! No, it’s not like that either!” Dolly yelped, waving her hands in front of her. The heat in her face was almost steaming the lens on her glasses. “We slept _next_ to each other, it just sort of happened! Well, no, nothing happened, not like that-”

“You were totally snuggling!” Jackson called from across the fire.

“Ah, so what I am hearing is that you _do_ have a suitor! Excelente!” Rosa said as she clapped her hands together. 

“Congratulations, Lady Dolores,” Theodore beamed as well. 

“Th-that’s not what I, h-he’s just my friend, I - Ugh, never mind...” Dolly sighed, plopping her head in her arms again as Rosa skipped around her.

“It’s no use with these two, Dolly,” Hudson sighed along with her. “I’d just embrace it.”

After a few more futile attempts at defending herself, Dolly ultimately gave up and let Rosa and Theodore plan her and Hop’s future wedding. Even Jackson and Hudson joined in, throwing in recommendations about colors and how many tiers their cake should have as Sap buzzed out the melody to the Wedding March. Once the moon began to rise, she sent most of them off to bed, leaving Jackson out to stay with her in the tent. Theodore insisted on keeping watch outside, ‘so nothing untoward’ would happen in her sleep.

A few snowflakes had started to drift from the sky, as they set up camp pretty close to Steamdrift Way. She wasn’t sure of the time when she awoke with a start to the sound of rustling beside her.

“Jackson?” she mumbled, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “What’re you doing up?” 

The rustling stopped immediately. Dolly rubbed her eyes again as they adjusted to the darkness. She looked to her right, where Jackson lay sleeping soundly. She looked to her left, where she had laid her bag and belongings. A figure stood frozen, gripping around something in her bag. Dolly peered closer.

Suddenly a Pokémon lashed out with a hiss, and Dolly flinched back. The figure darted out of the open tent flap, still holding something in its hand.

“Hey, get back here!” Dolly yelped, scrambling up. 

Jackson groggily lifted his head as well. She heard a caw, and some rustling from outside and Dolly scrambled to make it out of the tent. The moon shone down from directly overhead, casting light onto Theodore and something in his talons that was struggling wildly to break free.

“Hey, let me go!” the figure yelled, biting at the gripping talons. Dolly saw her wallet and coins scattered around the ground beneath. She stepped closer to the two Pokémon.

“You’re that Sneasel,” she whispered, looking closer to the Pokémon.

“Back up lady, or I’ll give you another black eye!”

Theodore smashed the Sneasel into the ground, pressing on her back with his foot. The Sneasel’s face was flush against the dirt as she winced. He began pressing harder into her, adding more weight to the pressure on her body.

“Don’t you dare threaten Lady Dolores,” he said as he pressed harder. She let out a cry. “Or I’ll break your flimsy spine.”

“Theodore, stop, you’re hurting her!” Dolly called, scrambling down to the Sneasel. 

Theodore lightened his grip, only enough so the Sneasel was still gripped tightly in his talons. She wiggled more, to no avail, and as Dolly got closer, she spit in her face. Dolly wiped it from her cheek.

“What do you need?” she asked. “Money? Food?” 

The Sneasel paused in her struggling, then started up again. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know!” she spat.

“I want to help,” Dolly offered. “If you’ve got a family that’s hungry, we have food that can feed them. You don’t need to steal from me,”

The Sneasel stopped again, brow still furrowed.

“Just tell me your name, and I can start cooking right now,” Dolly said. “I’ve got all the stuff in the tent, I’m sure you saw it,”

“It’s - it’s not that,” the Sneasel said, her struggle stopping completely. “I need money... I saw you and your team earlier and you had all sorts of fancy stuff, thought I could nick it when you were all sleeping,”

Dolly waited, still gazing at the Sneasel. She knelt there a while, as the Sneasel looked to the ground. Theodore waited as well, keeping his grip tight on her shoulders. The way she kept wincing and the purplish tint on her cheeks seemed familiar to Dolly.

“My brother’s in a gang,” she said finally. “He got real messed up by some rival Pokémon, now they won’t let him go without cash,”

Dolly nodded and looked to Theodore. He dropped the Sneasel and she fell to the ground. As she picked herself up, Dolly held out a Pecha berry to her. The Sneasel looked at it hesitantly, then up to Dolly with wide eyes, who held still.

The Sneasel reached gently, then stabbed the berry with her claw, and popped it into her mouth. She suddenly was standing taller. Dolly relaxed and sat on the ground.

“How did you…” the Sneasel started, eyeing Dolly.

“I could tell the symptoms,” she shrugged. “I’m a Trainer, so I’m pretty accustomed to status conditions. You tried to save your brother yourself, didn’t you? And they poisoned you?”

The Sneasel looked to the ground. 

“I don’t know how long my brother has left,” she whispered. “So, I was trying to scrape up the cash as fast as I could,”

Dolly stood suddenly, the Sneasel jumping back.

“Then what are we still doing here? Let’s go save your brother!” Dolly said, pumping a fist. She started closing up her tent as the Sneasel stood, watching. She looked back. “I said I was a Trainer, remember? We’ll fight this gang and get your brother back,”

The Sneasel looked at her with a furrowed brow. 

“I… uh, alright,” she said, taking a step toward the tunnel. She looked back a few times. “He’s this way,”

The Sneasel guided them through the tunnel to the Steamdrift Way, then through a handful of icy trails. 

“Name’s Rouge, by the way,” the Sneasel muttered as she crawled under a branch.

They continued for a few more minutes, until they reached a cave covered in ice. Rouge guided them through, and ultimately into a small corridor. After a brief scuffle, they emerged again with a Weavile in tow. Although Dolly was nervous at first, Jackson certainly wasn’t, and his Fire-type moves were almost unfairly powerful.

“Say, you weren’t so bad back there, sis,” the rescued Weavile grinned, punching Rouge’s shoulder. He was standing taller too, after a few potions from Dolly.

“Shut it Georgie, I learned everything from you anyway,” Rouge grinned, her cheeks tinged pink.

Her brother smiled. He looked back to Dolly, then to his sister. 

“Sis, why don’t you go with this Trainer? Dolly, was it?”

She nodded.

“Yeah, there’s nothing for you in this town,” he continued, looking to his sister as the sun rose over the snowbanks. “You oughta give yourself a future, better than whatever rubbish you could find here,”

“Georgie,” Rouge muttered, looking at her brother with big eyes. “I can’t leave you after all that,”

“Something tells me those punks won’t be coming back any time soon,” he grinned, waving a paw at her. “Thanks to your new friends,”

Rouge looked to Dolly and Jackson, both waiting. Even Theodore was standing, watching patiently as the two siblings talked. Then, she looked back to her brother, who gave a slow nod.

“You’re welcome to come with us, Rouge, if you’d like,” Dolly offered as she knelt and extended her hand. 

In it she held a Poké Ball, glinting in the rising sun. Rouge approached it slowly, then with one final look and smile to her brother, tapped it. In a flash, she was caught.

“Take care of her, yeah?” the Weavile said, crossing his arms. “She’s a right bit of trouble, just like the rest of her family, but she’s got a good heart.”

Dolly nodded and started down the snowy path.

“Oh, wait,” Georgie said. He ran up to Dolly and placed something in her hand. It poked her skin as she gripped it, the spirals smooth against her skin.

“Razor Claw - family heirloom,” he said. “It’s good collateral. If she does something dumb just say you won’t give it to her and that she’ll be a Sneasel forever. It’s worked well for me whenever she doesn’t want to do chores.”

Then, with a nod he turned, running into the trees and out of sight. Dolly clutched Rouge’s Poké Ball and smiled to herself. She started again towards Circhester as the buildings and fountains glistened in the rising sun.

~~

Melony was a force to be reckoned with. Her Ice-type Pokémon were powerful, and her reputation as an intense Gym Leader was no joke - there was no hint of a smile throughout their entire battle thus far. Jackson was a fair match for most of her team, but as soon as Melony threw out a Lapras, there was no way her Fire-type was finishing that battle. 

Dolly instead threw out Sap, grinning at the idea of an overpowered Max Lightning. Her Vikavolt darted anxiously around the arena as Melony’s Lapras Gigantamaxed to momentous proportions. Sap withheld through a Max Geyser until she was able to Dynamax herself.

Lighting, rain, and hail whipped around the arena as the two Pokémon fought for a leg up. The weather was deafening as each Pokémon unleashed attack after attack, thunder booming and echoing throughout Circhester stadium. Dolly could hardly hear the announcer over the howling of the wind and rain. She whipped her head to Sap, still buzzing above her. She was low on HP, Dolly could feel it, but Sap was faster than Melony’s Lapras. One more Max Lightning should do it.

Suddenly Sap began to shrink, growing smaller and smaller as she fell from the sky. 

Dolly whipped her head to Melony in confusion. It hadn’t been three turns, why was she shrinking already? Her fingers started to go numb as she ran to catch Sap as she fell from the sky. With a leap she caught her and tumbled, rolling across the pitch as the hail, rain, and lightning smacked into the ground and around the arena. She looked before her in horror.

Dents the size of baseballs littered Sap’s shell. Dolly whipped her head around wildly as the rain and hail hit her face.

The hail.

She looked to the sky. The hail.

It was raining down, huge ice chunks flinging to the ground around her. The weather kept changing, kept mixing, and Dolly hadn’t even thought it through. It was hail.

Dolly felt her heart crack once again, and the tingling turned to stabs in her chest.

“Sap?” she whispered, the hope in her heart slowly fading.

She couldn’t bring herself to scream. She couldn’t bring herself to cry. She only knelt there, yet another Pokémon dead in her arms, defeated because of her carelessness - of her pushing them too far. 

Again, she was stunned into nothing. The wind and rain whipped around her, tore through her hair, chilled her to the bone. Numb fingers clutched at the Pokémon in her arms. Melony’s Lapras still loomed over the stadium, watching the two on the ground. It started to hum a slow, mournful song as the rain, hail, and thunder crashed around them.

Dolly was soaked to the bone. She held Sap gently as she tossed out another Poké Ball, Rosa appearing before them. Her Bellossom had a high defense, she would be fine.

A few back and forth, and as Melony’s Lapras weaved around and into the attacks from Rosa, it continued to sing the same, mournful song. Rosa hit it with a super effective Petal Dance, and its final note rang throughout the stadium.

It felt wrong, everything was too beautiful around her. Rain and pink petals and lighting were swirling around her, the chaos too intense for the nothing Dolly felt in her heart.

Dolly knelt there, lightly holding Sap as the rainstorm turned into a light trickle. She felt nothing, thought nothing, and saw nothing but her partner in her arms. Her mind flashed back to their first encounter in the Wild Area, so, so long ago. She was so small. She was the reason she beat Bede in the first Galar Mine. She was one of three that stayed with her from the beginning. She let out a deep breath and returned Sap to her old Poké Ball.

Melony helped her to her feet, and it seemed even the audience wasn’t sure how to respond. This one wasn’t as obvious as the last - there was no cry for help, there was no scrambling against the dirt, there was no partner to retaliate and hurt Dolly in return. Though, some audience members cheered, some booed, some only murmured among themselves as the rain and snow speckled. 

She took the Badge, hair and clothes dripping, and left the pitch.

Dolly slowly pushed open the glass doors as her body was barraged by the cold outside winter. It pricked at her skin angrily, as she didn’t even bother to change, and her wet hair started to freeze as she shivered in the plaza. Her shoes dragged through the snow, her breath wafting softly around her. She gazed at the blue sky. It was too cheerful, too bright. It hurt her eyes.

Another one. Another one, another one, another one. Why could she keep assuming they were fine? Why did she keep taking these risks? How could she be so careless? She deserved to be cold, she thought as she felt Sap’s Poké Ball in her pocket. Why should she be warm when one of her loving partners was dead because of her? Sap was one of her partners that had been around the longest - she was part of her original team of six. The six that, as she assured herself at the very beginning, she would return to the wild after beating the first Gym and dropping out. Dolly’s shoulders slumped, and she closed her eyes tightly as the tears threatened to fall.

“Hey Dolls, how’d your match go? You ready for a battle against me-” 

Hop stopped in his tracks when he saw her face. 

“Not great, huh...?”

He stood next to her as she continued to gaze at the sky.

“I won,” she said softly. “You were right, Melony was tough. Her Lapras was mad strong.”

She looked down to Sap’s Poké Ball, now held out in front of her with numb fingers. Hop nodded and glanced between Dolly, shivering and wet, and the Poké Ball in her hand. Her fingers were turning white from the cold.

“Who was it?” he asked, gazing at the Poké Ball as well.

“Sap.”

He nodded. He watched her small frame shiver and he took a step towards her, only for her to take a step back, and his eyebrows pulled together. She had never done that before.

“Let’s battle tomorrow instead,” Dolly sighed, tucking the ball into her pocket again. 

She looked at her friend with one eye bruised, the other glassy. Her nose was pink and sniffling, the cold blotching her skin. He nodded solemnly.

“Yeah, of course. Take all the time you need,” he said, gingerly reaching his hand out. She stepped back again, and he tucked his hands into his pockets. “Do you want me to come with you as you…”

She shook her head. This was an errand she wanted to do alone.

“Dolls…” he started, watching her trembling in the cold. 

Her uniform shorts barely came to her mid-thigh, and Hop knew the fabric was thin to begin with. Where was that fuzzy coat she normally wore? She would get sick if she kept standing out here in the cold so dramatically like this; sopping wet, sniveling, and shaking. Why was she so determined to not take care of herself?

He clenched his fists in his pockets when she tucked her arms around herself. Something in his chest broke when she swallowed a sob, stepping back when he reached for her again. Hop heaved out a sigh, brows furrowed at his friend shivering in the cold. He shrugged off his jacket. She didn’t even look at him as he slung it around her shoulders, clasping the first button at the top.

“How about tomorrow then, huh?” he said softly. “Gives you a day to take a break, and we don’t even have to battle. Maybe we can grab lunch? Sonia’s said she’ll be around by then too, I’m sure I could persuade her to buy it for us,”

Dolly nodded, returning his weak smile.

He watched her as she set off through Circhester, heaving a sigh of his own.


	17. Her Goals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile)

**Chapter 17 - Her Goals**

Silence blanketed the clearing just as the snow did, and the only sound was the soft ‘pat’ of snowflakes that tumbled from the air and onto the banks around them. Rouge had led Dolly and Hudson to the quiet spot (after trading the knowledge for the Razor Claw), and the three stood, somberly gazing at the stone grave.

The pine trees framed it, and little pine needles surrounded the tombstone, as if to keep the ground warm for the Pokémon that lay beneath it. Dolly’s tears had frozen, just as her hair and fingers had, as she stood gazing at the ground. Even with Hop's jacket around her, she was still stunned into nothing, and her mind was just as numb as her hands. When Hudson finally let out a sigh, Dolly rested her hand on him.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly.

Hudson offered no response as he watched the grave, as if waiting for it to move, as if waiting to hear a melody from the buzz of Vikavolt wings. The only sound was silence, and the soft ‘pat’ of the snowflakes.

When he heaved out another sigh, Dolly wrapped her arms around him. It wasn’t much - she could offer little warmth, and little comfort to his large frame, but once she did, he finally let a single tear escape.

“She was funny, you know,” Hudson finally said.

His voice rumbled against Dolly’s ear, and Rouge glanced at them.

“She would talk to me.”

Dolly lifted her head. Hudson was still watching the grave as he sighed again.

“She didn’t talk like the rest of us talk, it was subtle. You had to pay attention. If you were lucky, you would get to hear her. She said I was the only one that really tried to listen to her.”

Dolly rested her head against him, stroking through his mane.

“She loved us all,” Hudson said. “She told me she would be happy to fight for us, to die for us. She told me that night at the fire on Route 8. I think she knew it would be coming soon, for her.”

“I’m sorry, Hudson,” Dolly whispered, trying to hug her Mudsdale tighter. “I’m sorry you’re upset, I’m sorry I wasn’t careful, I’m just… I’m sorry for not being better. I… please let me know if you need anything, and I’ll try to help.”

Another stretch of silence fell over the clearing. Hudson was trembling, just as Dolly was, both from the cold and from the emotion that coursed through them. After a while, Rouge’s voice broke the quiet. 

“So, this is what happens? Your Pokémon actually die?”

Dolly could only nod, still gazing at the proof lying beneath the pine needles.

“You can leave if you want, no one would blame you,” Dolly said quietly.

She thought about her team of five, about her Cinderace, her Mudsdale, her Bellossom, her Corviknight, her Weavile. Then, she thought to the other five, about her Eevee, her Noibat, her Wooloo, her Riolu, and now her Vikavolt, gone, because of her.

Rouge watched as the tears finally fell from her Trainer’s eyes, just as quietly as the snow. 

“Sap said it well, that night at the fire,” Hudson said, breaking the silence again. “She said that fighting and traveling beside all of us was what she wanted to do. She said the reward outweighed the risk ten-fold - that fighting and dying beside the ones she loved was the only kind of death she would want. She didn’t care if it was by growing old beside us, or by going out in a blaze of glory, just as long as we could all be together. That was Sap’s goal.”

The words wafted through the air, and into the ears of the Weavile. Rouge looked down to her claws, which now so much resembled that of her brother’s. Although she never got to know Sap, that was a goal they could relate to: fighting for the ones they loved.

“I’m cursed, Rouge,” Dolly said. “With the Nuzlocke Curse. My Pokémon die, and I hate myself for it. I’m not good at many things, but I like battling, and I like Pokémon, and I want to break the Curse.”

“ _We_ want to break the Curse,” Hudson corrected. “We all choose to fight alongside one another. We share this goal - Dolly’s goal. We want to break this Curse and show other Pokémon what it can look like to love a Trainer and a team as much as we all do.”

“You are free to leave,” the Mudsdale continued, finally turning and staring into Rouge’s eyes. “Or you can continue lending us your strength. I can say with my entire self, the truest thing I have ever known, is that you will not find a team who will love you and care for you more than we will. You are free to leave, but know that you will never find anything like you will find with us.”

Dolly turned, smeared the tears from her eyes, and held her trembling hand out for her Weavile. Rouge glanced at it, at her tear-stained eyes, then to Hudson, who was gazing at her with such an intensity that only raw authenticity could provide.

“What? I never said I was going anywhere,” Rouge said. “Now quit looking at me like some sniveling Cubchoo. You showed me what it was to be selfless, and I want that too. Plus, my brother would probably kick me back out to you, even if I tried to leave.”

Dolly let out a weak laugh as Rouge gingerly grabbed her hand and gave it a hesitant squeeze. Dolly reached out and pulled her into a hug, and her tears smeared her fur.

“Alright, alright, no need to get all mushy,” Rouge grumbled, squirming in Dolly’s arms. “Just sayin’ what we’re all thinkin’. You didn’t smother the big guy when he said all that gooey rubbish.”

Dolly let out a laugh and released Rouge, who brushed herself off with a huff.

“Can we go now? You both are shivering like mad, and your chattering teeth are going to attract a Beartic.”

~~

The sun twinkled through the curtains, the night having gone as quick as a herd of Nosepass. It seemed hardly likely that her battle with Melony was only yesterday, but the lack of excited buzzing in the morning only reminded her of that much more intensely. Dolly let out a breath and gazed out her hotel window. 

She hadn’t slept for a second, too distracted by the memory of Sap falling to the ground. Hudson said he could hear her speak. He said that he was the only one that tried to listen to Sap - not even her own Trainer would take the time to listen. What a terrible experience her Vikavolt must have had; to want to communicate, only to be ignored by a Trainer that was too wrapped up in herself. Sap was cursed too. She was cursed with a Trainer that was selfish, cruel, and a monster. Dolly was everything everyone said. Why did her Pokémon love her? How could anyone love her?

What did she miss about the rest of her Pokémon? About Posey? About Mateo? It wasn’t even that long since they lost their Riolu friend, either. What could she have learned if she had paid more attention? Dolly hardly learned anything about her Noibat, Fay. She was too distracted, too self-centered, even back then. Dolly heaved out a sigh. She missed them. She missed all of them.

The sunlight glinted off the ring of gold sitting on the nightstand, and Dolly looked at her new Badge for the first time. Only two to go.

With another sigh she stepped into the bathroom. Each step was slow, melancholy, until she reached the counter and gazed into the mirror. Her eye wasn’t swollen anymore, though it was still bruised, and the scratch from Rillaboom was as prominent as ever. Her fingers trailed over the dark circles that were slowly forming under her eyes. Dolly stepped back and gazed at the reflection before her. Then, her eyebrows furrowed, and she tore herself away. 

After some morning tea, a phone call to her mum, and a round of three-way chess with Hudson and Theodore, it was about time to meet Hop at the restaurant downtown. Perhaps her best friend and some lunch would ease her troubles. She ran into him inside the hotel lobby, and delicately handed his jacket back.

“Thanks Hop,” she said, tucking her hands into her pockets.

He tugged his jacket back on with a grin. 

“Don’t mention it. Couldn’t stand there letting my best mate shiver like a Snorunt,”

Then, his grin faltered as she cast her gaze down. Not even a chuckle? This was worse than he thought. He sighed again and stepped towards her, and when she didn't back away, he set his hands on her shoulders. 

“Dolls, when will you start taking care of yourself?” he asked, brushing her bangs from her face. “Your Pokémon need you, and so do I. You could have froze to death standing out there in the cold all wet like that,”

“I know…” she mumbled, kicking at the ground. 

His eyebrows pulled together as he watched her look so guiltily to the floor. Hop sighed, and delicately held his arms out for her. When Dolly glanced to his arms, to his worried gaze, she took half a step forward, and Hop quickly covered the rest of the distance.

“C’mere,” he said, pulling her into him. “You need a Hop hug.”

She seemed so frail, like if Hop squeezed her any tighter, she would shatter like glass. Dolly froze for a second, then deflated against him with a deep sigh. Strands of her hair fluttered as she sighed against his shirt, and she wrapped her arms around him in return. When he rested his head on top of hers, she had to admit, she did feel a little better. After a rejuvenating ten seconds, Hop quietly muttered into her hair.

“Let’s get some lunch, yeah? Knowing you, you probably haven’t eaten in a while, either.”

At that, her stomach grumbled and Hop tutted.

“I… had some tea this morning…” she mumbled against his shirt, holding back a smile.

“Ah yes, hot leaf water, very nutritious.”

Dolly laughed and stepped back. 

“Okay, fine, if you want to eat so bad then what’re we standing around here for?”

“Wait, hold on, I was right.”

Hop pulled her against him again, and squeezed her a little tighter. His warmth and his smile and his arms around her made the hint of a blush creep up on Dolly’s cheeks.

“Right about what?”

“You need two Hop hugs.”

She laughed, and let him hold her against him. When her stomach grumbled again, she tried to squirm away, though he was holding on rather defiantly.

“Hop, c’mon, I’m hungry.”

“Wait, just like, two more seconds.”

It was another two seconds, then another five, then another ten. Dolly cleared her throat, though Hop pretended not to hear it. When she noticed the front desk clerk raising an eyebrow at them, she became much more aware of how public they were in the middle of the lobby of Hotel Ionia, and she spoke up again.

“I think it’s been two seconds.”

“Just two more.”

“I’m going to starve to death and it’s going to be your fault.”

“Alright fine,” he grinned, stepping back. “All healed up from a Hop hug, now it’s time for a nutritious and delicious distraction.”

They pushed open the hotel lobby doors and made their way to the restaurant together. Although she tried to watch children build a snowman with their Snom, Dolly was still conscious of how close he was walking, and the back of her mind was quite aware of his hand only inches from hers.

“One of my Pokémon really likes this kind of food, actually,” Dolly said, shaking off the distraction. “She says it ‘fuels the hot Latin passion within her.’ Not sure where ‘Latin’ is, but I’m sure she would appreciate joining us for lunch,” 

Hop pushed open the door to Bob’s Your Uncle, and they were both hit with the warm aroma of sizzling food. They inhaled simultaneously and grinned at one another, then Hop ran in and secured them a booth in the back corner.

“I’ve heard good things about this restaurant,” Hop said, sliding into the booth after Dolly, and shaking off his jacket. “Sonia picked a good spot, she should be here any minute.”

“Yeah, my auntie used to live in Circhester and would rave about their food,” Dolly grinned. “That’s actually how I got this jacket, she won it at a blazin’ curry eating contest and gave it to me when me and mum first came to visit after we moved here,”

Hop grinned and rested his arms behind his head. 

“Sounds like my kind of challenge! Wonder if Sonia would be willing to pay for me to have a go.”

As the waiter set down some waters for them, Dolly set her bag between her and the brick wall, and finally fished out Rosa’s Poké Ball. In a flash her Bellossom was out and standing on the table. She stretched and shifted her leaf skirt. 

“Where are we, Dolly? It smells heavenly,” Rosa said as she glanced around the restaurant. She froze when she laid eyes on Hop.

“Ah, and who is _this?”_ Rosa asked, a sly grin inching onto her face. “Is this not the storyteller from the forest?”

“Rosa, this is Hop,” Dolly smiled. “My best mate.”

“Nice to meet ya,” Hop grinned.

Rosa squinted her eyes as Dolly took a sip of her water. 

“Look at your smile… I have never seen this smile on you before...” she muttered. She squinted between the two Trainers. After a second, she gasped and clasped her hands together. “Is this the one?! The man you have been so bashful about?! Tu amante? Your _lover?”_

Dolly inhaled her water and it shot out through her nose.

“Ah, look at your pink face! He is, he is! I am honored to finally meet him!”

“No!” Dolly exclaimed, coughing again and grabbing at a napkin. “He’s not!”

“He’s not what? What’s she saying?” Hop asked as he leaned in. 

He rested his arm against the back of the booth, and Dolly’s face was quickly growing hotter as she became acutely aware of how little booth there was left between the two of them - and how her nose was dribbling. How delicate of her.

Rosa looked between the anticipatory Hop and the flustered Dolly, who was squeezing herself closer to the brick wall. Without much luck, however, as her bag took up quite a bit of space.

“I am right,” Rosa said as she held a hand up to her chin and studied Hop’s face. “You have noticed his long eyelashes, yes?” 

With a decisive clap of her hands, Rosa beamed. 

“You will have beautiful children.”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Dolly coughed as she fished through her bag again. “Back into the Poké Ball.”

“You try to keep it hidden, but I can see right through you,” Rosa giggled. She skipped up to Hop, who picked her up and set her on his lap. “Ah, he is very handsome, tall, strong… yes, I approve. He is a good match for you, my Dolly.”

“She’s so sweet!” Hop beamed, patting Rosa on the head. “She was with us in the Glimwood Tangle, right? Did she ask for anything to be in my Skitty and Wailord story?” 

“Have you kissed? Embraced?” Rosa asked, pushing on Hop’s abdomen, then reaching towards his bicep. After a squeeze she let out a satisfactory ‘hm.’

“Sh-she was the one that asked for the, uh… passionate romance...” Dolly mumbled, ignoring Rosa’s comment and vehemently not picturing what it would be like to ‘kiss or embrace’ Hop. Why did he always have to sit so close?

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” he laughed.

“Dios mío, and what an overwhelming smile,” Rosa breathed, fanning her face. “I can see why he makes your body flush, my Dolly.”

“H-he doesn’t... make my body do anything…” she mumbled as her eyes flicked to Hop. She hoped he didn’t hear her, but that was unlikely with how close he was sitting.

“What’s she been saying?” Hop asked, looking back to Rosa. “Is she talking about me? She keeps looking at me,”

“Tell him.”

“What?! No!”

“Tell him what I have been saying or I will shoot you with acid.” 

Dolly’s mouth hung open and Rosa stuck out her tongue.

“You know I will do it, I am a Pokémon of my word,” Rosa threatened, snuggling against Hop.

“Okay, okay, yeesh… she, uh,” Dolly said as she glanced to Hop, who was still sitting with their faces an inch too close. She glanced back to her hands. “She was just asking if I’ve ever noticed your… ahem…. eyelashes. And… that you’re tall….”

“And? Tell him the first thing I said,” Rosa said.

“I am NOT saying that,”

Rosa readied herself for an attack.

“Okay! Okay, no acid today, please,” Dolly said, then she took in a breath. “ShealsoaskedifwewereloversandifwevekissedorembracedbutIdidnotwanttosaythatsoshethreatenedtospraymewithacid.”

“What?” Hop asked, leaning closer. “Mate, I didn’t understand anything you just said,”

Dolly’s heart was about to beat out of her chest.

“Are you feeling alright?” Hop asked, holding a hand to her forehead. “You’re burning up, are you sick? You caught a cold after all, didn’t you?” 

Then, his hand trailed to her cheek, his thumb grazing beside the cuts Rillaboom gave her. 

“These still look tender,” he said softly. “You want me to patch you up again?”

Nope, still not thinking about kissing or embracing Hop. Dolly shot a pleading glance to Rosa, who grinned deviously.

“Ah, alright, you poor thing. I will retract my threat, but in turn you must one day soon confess your love. And save me some spicy curry,” she said as she crossed over to Dolly’s lap. She tapped the Poké Ball in Dolly’s bag and disappeared in a flash.

“Dolls?” Hop asked gently, still leaning toward her and holding her cheek.

“Ah, no, I’m fine,” Dolly mumbled, doing her best to scrunch herself against the wall. “It’s just… really hot in here…”

His golden eyes were staring into hers, and her body was absolutely and definitely _not_ flushed. She was sweating a lot, though. Why was he sitting so close? Why was he holding her so gently? Didn’t he realize there were other people in the bloody restaurant? A few were starting to glance their way.

“There you two are,” she heard. Sonia came sauntering up to them, setting her own bag down on the seat across from them. “I didn’t know you both came in already, I was waiting outside in the cold like a twit,” 

“‘Bout time, Sonia!” Hop grinned, sliding away from Dolly. “Hey, how do you feel about ordering me that blazin’ curry challenge? I want a new jacket,”

Dolly let out a sigh of relief and deflated into the booth. She could just about kiss or embrace Sonia right now.

“Not sure what you’re going on about, but I actually came to-” Sonia paused, brow furrowed as she looked at Dolly. “You alright there, mate? You’re as red as a Tomato berry.”

Dolly nodded more ferociously than she intended. 

“Yup, perfectly fine. Fit as a Frillish!” she squeaked.

“...Right then,” Sonia said, glancing between her and Hop.

As she shrugged her coat off, she started talking a bit more about her discoveries on the Darkest Day and about the sword and shield Pokémon. Dolly tried her best to listen, though she was distracted by how her skin was still tingling where Hop touched.

Hop and Sonia eased into conversation, and Dolly was fully aware of Hop’s hand sliding towards hers under the table. When his fingers brushed hers, her hand smacked the underside of the table and an unfortunate crunch echoed throughout the restaurant. Dolly hid her groan of pain in a cough. Sonia lifted an eyebrow at her.

“...Anyway. So, I’ve been trying to decode where they could have ended up and -” Sonia froze, her eyes glued to the back wall. 

Hop and Dolly both turned to follow her gaze. She bolted out of her chair and rushed over to the back wall of the restaurant.

“No way! Is this a fifth tapestry?”

Dolly and Hop followed her, taking in the bedraggled tapestry hanging on the wall. Sonia filled Hop in on the information from the Hammerlocke Vault as Dolly peered at the tapestry.

“Why do the heroes look so sad? And where are the sword and shield?” Hop asked, eyeing the tapestry himself.

“Maybe it was an end to the legend,” Dolly pondered, tearing her thoughts away from the boy beside her. Her mind shot back to the other tapestries in the Hammerlocke Vault as Sonia scratched her chin. “Perhaps when their duty was completed, they went into some kind of sleep?”

Hop nearly jumped out of his skin and turned to Dolly. 

“Dolls! Do you remember that Pokémon we met that day? Do you think… it could’ve been one of them? Either the sword or the shield Pokémon?”

Sonia’s jaw dropped. 

“You _met_ them?”

“Yeah, in the Slumbering Weald,” Dolly nodded. “That’s what I was thinking back in Stow-on-Side!”

“Exactly! The mad Pokémon we ran into in the fog! Don’t you think that could’ve been it?”

“Oh, that’s right! You lot have been in the Slumbering Weald,” Sonia gasped. Then, she grinned. “How about we discuss this over a meal? Go on, what do you want to eat? Let’s get our orders in!”

The trio ate, and Hop ordered the spiciest food on the menu, only to burn his mouth after one bite. Rosa finished his portion with ease, licking the sauce remnants off her hands. So instead, Hop shared some of Dolly’s more mild plate after he glumly admitted defeat. When Hop continuously leaned towards her to pluck the food of their plate, Rosa eyed her Trainer mischievously.

When they started to pull out their money for the meal, Sonia waved them off, and Hop and Dolly smirked at one another. Hop whispered a ‘told ya she would buy it,’ as they stepped out of the restaurant and back into the wintry chill of Circhester.

They made their way to the Hero’s Bath next, and Sonia was still enthusing about the history she was finding in Circhester.

“They say this is where the two heroes came to soothe their wounds after the battle to bring down that evil presence, long ago,” Sonia explained. “Nowadays only Pokémon really use the Hero’s Bath, though, except for one night a year when the whole town comes in.”

As she said this, dozens of people ambled about, hanging up strings of lights and moving in high top tables. 

“And we’re the lucky folks who get to go!” Hop enthused, pumping his fists. “It’s the Hero’s Bath festival, right Sonia?”

“Right-o,” she grinned, turning back to them. “It’s timed really well, what with a lot of Gym Challengers making it to Circhester by now. They’re actually setting up for it tonight.”

“You’re coming, right Dolls?” Hop asked, turning to Dolly. His eyes bore into hers, and her gaze flicked from the expectant Hop to the bemused Sonia.

“Uh, what is it?”

“It’s a festival!” Hop beamed. “There will be music and lights and food and it’ll be brilliant!”

“Not to mention a slew of historical content,” Sonia added.

“Tonight? I dunno…” she sighed. “I’m not sure I’m really in the festival mood.”

“Aw, come on! It’ll be fun, it’ll help take your mind off things,” Hop said, patting her shoulder. 

Dolly tried to smile, but forced out a grimace instead. She was never one for parties… the last time she was invited to something that wasn’t a family party it turned out just to be a prank. And all the loud noise and all the people crammed into one spot? She would much rather drink tea in bed with her Pokémon. She didn’t really want to be pushed or shoved or have things thrown at her again, anyway, as seemed to be the norm every time she was in a crowd. She just lost Sap, too, and she hadn’t slept a wink since. So far this idea sucked.

“Come on, Dolls,” Hop added softly. “You’ve been doing so well at putting yourself out there,”

Well… maybe if Hop was there, it wouldn’t be so bad. _Maybe_ it could be fun, maybe. The heat of the water could help soothe her muscles, which seemed to be tense literally all the time now. She glanced at Sonia, who had conspicuously turned away from them, and was pretending to be quite interested in the wall behind her. Dolly stepped forward and whispered to Hop. 

“Um, you’ll go with me, right? So I don’t have to go alone?”

Hop’s eyebrows pulled together as he nodded.

“I… I know you’ve made friends with other Challengers,” she continued. “But I don’t really think anyone else likes me. And, um… crowds make me nervous, now. I don’t want anything happening again like it did in Motostoke...”

Dolly was fumbling with her fingers, her hair covering her face like a curtain. This was so embarrassing, spilling all of this out like that. She should really be better with crowds, especially with being in the Gym Challenge. Everyone else was fine in crowds, Hop was fine in crowds, so really she should be used to them and not be such a pathetic-

She was torn from her thoughts when Hop squeezed her hand. She glanced up to see him smiling at her softly.

“I’ll be with you, don’t worry,” he whispered back. “I’ll keep you safe. I’ll even come pick you up so you don’t have to walk there alone.”

Warmth spread through her chest as she looked up at him. Well… no one would push her or throw things at her if Hop was there, right? He was among the top favorite Gym Challengers, so people would respect him. He wouldn’t leave her there alone, scrambling for a safety net, and he had never lied to her before. She couldn’t help but let a smile escape, and when she did, Hop smiled too.

“Really?” she asked.

Hop nodded, and her smile grew. And, as soon as she did, his cheeks stained slightly pink.

“Okay. I’ll go.”

“And Sonia will be there too, right Sonia?” Hop said, turning to Sonia.

“Yes - I mean what? What did you say? I was, uh, looking at this interesting engraving. ‘Pool closes at dusk.’ Huh. Awful interesting.”

Hop rolled his eyes as Sonia trotted up to them.

“Anyway yeah, I’ll be there. You’ve got a swimsuit Dolly? The boutique is having a flash sale for tonight,”

Ugh, _and_ wearing a swimsuit...? This sounded like the worst way to end a night. Maybe it wasn’t too late to back out.

“Hey, you already said you would go!” Hop pouted.

Well that hope left as quickly as it came.

“I - uh. I don’t have enough money,” Dolly lied, crossing her arms. “Can’t go, I guess.”

“Here, I’ll even buy it for you!” Sonia squealed, pulling Dolly along. “See you tonight, Hop!”

After pulling her into the boutique, Sonia tried to get Dolly to buy a slew of ridiculous swimsuits. Dolly wasn’t sure if she was teasing her at one point, when she handed her a bikini made of nothing but frills, then another one of just black lace. Was that even a swimsuit?! Sonia cackled when Dolly immediately threw it back out of the changing room. 

“Can you just pick out something normal?” Dolly called, pulling off a stringy thing. “I don’t even know how to put half of these on,”

“But they’ve got some super cute stuff! Goodness knows _I_ don’t need any more swimsuits...”

“ _Please_ Sonia? I already barely want to go.”

“Oh fine.”

Sonia obliged by her request, they checked out, and Sonia sent Dolly off with a wave and a shopping bag. It wasn’t long before the sun was set, and she was in her hotel room with Jackson pounding on the bathroom door.

“What’s taking you so long, Dolly? Don’t you need to go?” he called from outside the door. “I can see a bunch of people there already,”

“Just a minute!” she called in return. Her poking about on the internet for cute-yet-casual hairstyles was a flop, as her hair laid on her head exactly as it looked that morning.

“Leave her be, Jackson!” she heard Rosa’s muffled voice through the door. “She must make herself even more beautiful if she is to catch and keep the eyes of her darling Hop!”

Dolly rolled her eyes as she tried to put on the mascara the beautician gave her so long ago. She couldn’t remember how she did it back in Motostoke, or how she got her eyelashes to look so long. She just kept stabbing herself in the eye. If she got another black eye before this bloody festival, so help her-

With a frustrated huff she chucked the mascara back onto the bathroom counter. 

“Whatever,” she grumbled, glaring at her reflection. “I’ll just look like a Feebas, I don’t even care.”

Her eye was pink and bruised, eyelashes clumpy, and the scratches on her face were as prominent as ever. She flung the door open and marched out, yanking open the closet to get her jacket. 

“What’s with you?” Jackson asked, setting his hands on his hips as she stormed about the room, collecting her things. “What happened to your eye? The other one’s black now, too,”

“She’s an eighteen-year-old girl, this is pretty normal,” Rouge yawned from the chair, picking at her claws. “But he’s right, your mascara looks like rubbish,”

“Thank you.” Dolly sneered as she tripped to put on her loafer. “Thanks for that boost of confidence, Rouge, real helpful.”

“What’re you putting on loafers for?” Rouge asked, picking at her fangs now. “Thought this was a pool thing?” 

Dolly grumbled again as she flung clothes and bags around, looking for her other shoe. 

“I look stupid in a swimsuit, I’m just going to wear what I always do. No one’s going to be looking at me anyway, there’s plenty of way sexier ladies down there already,” she huffed, gesturing toward the window. “Where the hell is my other shoe?!”

“This is pitiful,” Rouge muttered, standing from her spot and stretching. 

The Weavile threw a look out the window overlooking the Hero’s Bath. Dolly was right about there being women there, but it was mainly mothers and grandmothers with their families that were trickling into the festival. The steam wafted from the bath, and fairy lights twinkled as they hung from the ceiling and around the stone pillars.

“They’re all wearing swimsuits, Dolly,” her Weavile called. “You’d look even weirder if you didn’t.” 

She looked to her Trainer and rolled her eyes as Dolly tripped over the blanket strewn on the ground. She heaved out a sigh, then pushed behind Dolly’s legs, guiding her back into the bathroom. 

“Come on, Rosa and I will show you,”

“I said I was fine,” Dolly grumbled, crossing her arms like a toddler. “Doesn’t matter anyway, not like I can ever be pretty...” 

Rouge clamored up onto the bathroom counter, and Rosa hopped up behind her. Rosa was bustling around behind her, gathering the makeup and hair supplies Sonia lent Dolly. Rouge snagged a washcloth from the counter and wet it, then smeared it over Dolly’s face.

“Hey, what’re you doing?” she spluttered, ripping the washcloth away from her face.

“Gotta start over,” Rouge said, wiping more gently. 

“What do you know about all this,” Dolly huffed, picking at the ends of her hair.

“Well, we both know Rosa is a beauty queen,” Rouge shrugged as Rosa shot them a dazzling smile, “And I like fiddling with new stuff. We’ll get your eyes to rival that rival of yours,”

“Ah, yes, with his golden eyes,” Rosa swooned as she finished her preparations. “With his beautiful smile and strong muscles,”

“Muscles, huh?” Rouge grinned as she wiped the last remnant of mascara from Dolly’s face. 

“Yeah well herding Wooloo takes a lot of strength and… ugh never mind.” Dolly grumbled, crossing her arms again as her cheeks flared pink.

Rogue and Rosa flitted around the counter, picking up new contacts, mascaras, hair ties and more as Dolly pouted. Rosa ordered her to sit on the floor while she fussed with her hair, standing behind her on the bathtub siding. Rouge clambered onto her lap with an array of brushes, but not before she plucked Dolly’s phone off the counter and started typing something into it.

“What’re you doing?” Dolly asked, peering onto the screen.

“Telling Hop you’ll be a minute.”

“What? How?”

“Georgie taught me how to read and write a long time ago,” Rouge shrugged, setting Dolly’s phone back on the counter. 

Dolly’s jaw dropped, and Rouge waved her off. 

“Oh close your mouth. Actually, close your eyes, too, gotta get this makeup on somehow.”

After a few more minutes of brushing, applying, and pouting, the two Pokémon finally finished.

“Annnd done,” Rouge beamed, tapping Dolly’s nose with her brush.

Dolly looked to her two smug Pokémon, then stood to look at her reflection.

“Well I…” she started, turning her head back and forth. “I certainly look better than a Feebas now,” 

Her makeup was much cleaner than before, with crisp and smooth lines and long, dark eyelashes. Rosa had tucked her hair up in braids somehow, too, with a few light white-blonde curls cascading down artfully. Rouge and Rosa high-fived. 

“Hey, told ya I knew what I was doing!” Rouge grinned toothily. She grabbed the swimsuit Dolly got earlier that day and tossed it to her. “Now get dressed, you’re already fashionably late.”

Dolly shooed the two Pokémon out of the bathroom and slipped on her new attire. Sonia might have tried to get her to wear some ridiculously skimpy things, but this one fit perfectly. It was modest and simple, and it accented her skin tone nicely. The support from her two Pokémon had her feeling a bit better, too. Dolly twirled in the mirror, smiling the first genuine smile she had in a while. She puffed out her chest and popped her hip, just to test how she looked.

Okay yeah too far. 

She poked her head out into the main room. Jackson had already made himself comfortable on her bed, pulling up some local sports match. Rouge sat beside him as they crunched on some chips and cheered and booed at the telly. Hudson and Theodore lay playing checkers, with Rosa pushing along the pieces on Hudson’s behalf. Dolly quickly scuttled to the closet to grab her jacket when Jackson looked her way.

“Hey, lookin’ good!” he called from the bed as Rouge smirked smugly behind him.

“My Lady, you will catch the eye of every man there, looking like this,” Theodore huffed, rising from the ground and ruffling his feathers. “I insist I accompany you, lest one act upon his uncouth desires.”

“No, no, you cannot!” Rosa gasped, tugging at a handful of Theodore’s feathers. “She is to woo her lover Hop tonight, you cannot get in the way of destiny!”

Dolly felt the heat rising to her face as Theodore grinned. 

“Ah, the noble Sir Hop. If he is your suitor, you are in safe hands,”

“Better not be in anyone’s hands tonight,” Hudson muttered threateningly.

“Or those sexy muscles!” Rouge called through a mouthful of chips.

“Oh, stuff it you lot, I’ll be fine. It’s a family festival anyway,” she said, tucking her jacket around her as her face grew warmer. “No one’s going to be ‘uncouth,’” 

Her pocket buzzed, and Dolly glanced at her phone to see a text from Hop.

“He’s waiting downstairs,” she grinned, tapping out a reply. Rosa squealed. 

“Ah, I love seeing that smile on your face!” she said as she rushed over and pushed Dolly out the door. “Now go, go! Run to destiny!”

Rosa beamed, pride blooming in her at her courageous Trainer, as she waved Dolly down the hall.


	18. The Hero's Bath Festival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile)

**Chapter 18 - The Hero’s Bath Festival**

Dolly plodded down the hallway and tugged at her swimsuit. It was much tighter than the things she was used to wearing, though it covered all the necessities well enough. It was odd too, walking along without her glasses, since Rosa persuaded her to try out contacts for the night. She kept motioning to push them up her face, only to rub at the bridge of her nose. Dolly stepped into the elevator and glanced at the mirrored walls. 

The girl she saw was unfamiliar, too well put-together, for the reflection she often met in the mirror. Dolly wouldn’t mind seeing this girl more often, though, because this girl had friends and Pokémon who supported her. As Dolly wiped off a fleck of misplaced mascara, she had to hand it to Rouge and Rosa, because for two strange Pokémon, they knew what they were doing. The colors Rouge used accented the green in her eyes, and her eyelashes were almost as long as Hop’s. She vaguely wondered if he would notice. Then she more clearly wondered why she wondered that.

Dolly twirled at the strands of hair hanging loosely as she had seen Sonia do so many times. She hoped their red-headed friend really would be at the festival, because if both Sonia and Hop were there, perhaps it would be tolerable. It would be better if her Pokémon wanted to come too, but despite her pleading, Rosa didn’t let them and said she ‘needed time alone with her darling Hop.’ Lacey used to love swimming, she probably would have loved to come with her.

The lift gave off a ding, and Dolly glanced around the near-empty lobby for her friend. She stepped out slowly, and the air conditioning reminded her of just how little clothing she was wearing. She tucked her jacket around her tighter and ran her hands up and down her bare legs. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…

When she turned to go back upstairs, a familiar laugh echoed. She glanced around one of the pillars to see Hop chatting with an older woman sitting in one of the lobby chairs.

Yeah. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

Dolly tried very hard not to keep glancing at his bare torso, or at his jacket that kept moving back and forth to cover it like a curtain. They had gone swimming in the river by Postwick when they were younger, but back then he certainly wasn’t as... defined.

He waved goodbye to the lady in the chair and wandered over to the main doors again. She watched him pull out his phone and tap onto it, and not soon after, her pocket buzzed. She read his text, smiled, and tucked her phone back into her pocket. Dolly took a deep breath, tried to channel Rosa’s blazing confidence, and unzipped the top of her jacket a few inches as she made her way to him. She tapped him on the shoulder.

“Geez, took you long enou-” he started with a smile as he turned towards her. 

She held back a hesitant smile as his eyes grew wide and his smile faded to something of shock. Hop was vehemently not looking anywhere beneath her chin, and it took him another few seconds before he made any other semblance of response.

“...-gh.” he finished, jolting into focus. “W-wow, Dolls, you, uh, you look… different.” 

“Different?”

“You look grood. Uh, good. Great, I mean,” Hop stuttered. Her smile bloomed, and Hop tore his eyes away as he cleared his throat.

“Oh,” she said quietly. “Really?”

Hop gave one sharp nod and cleared his throat again.

“Y-yep. So, uh, can’t wait, right? Festivals are the breast - er - best. Anyway, ahem, ready to go?” he asked, his voice a pitch higher than before. 

She nodded as she cautiously bit her lip. 

“Grood,” he squeaked as he turned, and then slammed into the hotel doors. Hop froze for a second, then pulled the handle. “It’s, uh... It’s a pull, not a push. Odd since that’s… that’s a fire hazard…”

“Right,” she giggled, and followed Hop out into the cold.

“So,” he continued awkwardly as they made their way to the festival. “You did your hair. I’ve never seen you bare - _HAIR_ , I’ve never seen you do your _hair_ , um, like that, since normally it’s down and not up like that and I guess now that it’s longer you can do more with it since we were in Motostoke and you got it changed there too and now it’s different again and it, um, and-”

“Hop, chill out, it’s still me,” Dolly laughed, bumping his arm. He rubbed at his face and let out a sigh.

“Y-yeah I know,” he said. He muttered something under his breath, but she couldn’t quite make it out.

The festival was already in full swing, with music drifting through the air from the plaza above the bath. Torches flickered and fairy-lights twinkled, giving off a soft, warm glow into the night. Fat snowflakes fell from the sky as children rushed about, trying to catch them on their tongues. Steam wafted from the Hero’s Bath as a few families splashed in it, while a group of Challengers around Dolly and Hop’s age sat chatting on the edge of the bath. Carkols bumbled around the stone plazas, warming everyone as they passed, and although the festival was buzzing with activity, Dolly breathed out a sigh of relief to see it wasn’t completely packed.

“Hey, Hop and Dolly!” Sonia called as she trotted up to them.

“What’s with the outfit,” Hop huffed, gesturing to her tan overcoat and jeans. “Not going for a swim?”

“No way, there’s way too much historical content around here,” Sonia enthused, pumping her fists. She reached into her pockets and took out a bundle of sticky notes and pens. “Needed pockets for all my notes. You two sure look the part, though. And Dolly, no glasses, huh?”

Dolly shrugged. 

“Rosa said-” 

Dolly paused. Rosa said what? To not have a barrier between her and Hop so he could more easily gaze into her big brown eyes?

“R-Rosa said she… didn’t want them getting broken...”

“Well you look great!” Sonia said, then looked to Hop with a devious grin. “Doesn’t she, Hop?”

He only nodded, though he still wasn’t looking directly at Dolly. Sonia let out a laugh. 

“Ah, you two. Anyway,” she said, waving them over. “I’ve got us a spot, you can set your stuff down.” 

She led them to a standing table where she had strewn papers and such on it, and a few of them were dappled with water and ashes from the roaming Carkols.

“Well I could use a refreshing dip,” Hop said with a curt nod. 

He stripped off his jacket, and Dolly watched his shoulders as he tugged his sleeves off and tossed it onto one of the high-rise chairs beside them. Her eyes followed as he walked toward the group of Challengers that were sitting and chatting at the edge of the pool, and Dolly thought that yes, Hop was certainly more defined than he used to be.

She could feel Sonia staring at her. 

“What?” she asked, turning to her friend. 

They both took a seat in the high-rise chairs and beckoned over a Carkol. Sonia interlocked her fingers and propped her chin on them.

“Oh nothing,” she sang, twirling in her chair. “Just watching you two watch each other, just walking into the restaurant to him holding your face and practically sitting on your lap, just listening to him stutter at you when you were coming up, just waiting for you to be done staring at him as he walked away...” 

Suddenly, Sonia smashed her hands on the table. 

“You fancy Hop, don’t you?!”

“N-no!” Dolly spat defensively. 

“Don’t you try and hide it,” Sonia said with a grin as she squinted her eyes at Dolly. “I saw how you watched him take off that jacket.”

“I-I was not! I watched him like I’d watch anyone else take off their clothes!” she spat. Her eyes grew wide at her slip, then she looked around frantically. “I mean I was… I was… I was just watching that Mr. Rime over there. His dance was very entertaining.”

Sonia rolled her eyes as Dolly crossed her arms. 

“Whatever,” Sonia laughed. “I’ll change the subject before your head explodes.”

Dolly sighed and deflated into her chair.

“Do you know much about this festival? They say it’s to celebrate new beginnings,” Sonia continued, looking around the chamber. “You submerge yourself in the Hero’s Bath to heal your inner wounds. It’s grown from a serious ritual to just a tale, though, as you can see. The folks native to Circhester still like to celebrate it, and Melony and Gordie host a lot of the Gym Leaders who come into town.”

“New beginnings, huh?” Dolly asked, propping her chin up. “I could sure use one of those.”

“Jump in, then!” Sonia beamed. “Don’t want that pretty swimsuit to go to waste, yeah?”

Dolly smiled and slid off the chair. She reached to unzip her jacket, then hesitated.

“Go on, girl, you look great,” Sonia said with an encouraging smile. “Did you _not_ notice how Hop was reacting to you? That had to feel good.”

Dolly bit her lip to hide her grin again. She couldn’t disagree with Sonia on that one, so she unzipped her jacket and tossed it onto the chair. The sensation was odd, with the cold air biting at her skin, only to be warmed by the steam coming from the bath and the Fire-type Pokémon around them. Sonia whistled, and a disgruntled Dolly shushed her. 

“I’m off, actually,” Sonia said as she gathered up her notes. “I’ve got enough content here to last a while, and those kids are pushing their splash zone dangerously close,”

“You’re leaving?” Dolly asked as her eyes widened. Hop had already settled into a conversation with some other Gym Challengers, what was she supposed to do if Sonia left?

“You’ll be fine, Hop’s right over there,” she said with a wave. 

Before she could think of another excuse, Sonia had walked out into the night. After a moment, Dolly heaved in a breath and squared her shoulders. Sonia was right. She could do this. She was one of the strongest Challengers in the League, what was a little festival? 

Dolly started her way towards the bath, stepping delicately across the heated tiles. She took a few steps into the pool, and the warmth seeped up her legs. The water lapped at her and cast a light blue glow over her thighs as she waded deeper. When a few murmurs drifted into her ears, Dolly glanced up. A group of young girls toddled up to the edge of the bath, and the others pushed one forward.

“Can we get your autograph, Challenger Dolly?” the one in front asked boldly.

Dolly gaped, staring at the expectant group before her. 

“I mean, we don’t have to,” the girl in front added as her eyebrows pulled together. “You’re just my favorite Challenger, and it was cool to see you here.”

Dolly was still standing with her jaw hanging open.

“Really?” she asked. The girl nodded, and her friends behind her nodded too. “Oh! Oh, well, sure then, yeah, sorry. Um, thanks for coming up to me.”

The girl’s face broke into a sweet smile. 

“Brilliant! And can we get a picture, too?”

Perhaps it was time to be confident, just as these young girls were. Sonia said she looked good in the swimsuit she picked out, and for once in her life, Dolly believed it. She nodded, the group of girls squealed, and grouped around for a picture. 

After the girl’s phone clicked, they offered another round of thank-you’s, and ran off in a herd of giggles toward Hop next. Dolly smiled as she watched them approach Hop, and he flashed his signature grin. The bold one in front wasn’t so bold with him, and she delicately handed out a pen and card. Dolly rolled her eyes when he winked at them after signing their cards, and the group of girls ran off again tittering, pushing one another as they made their way to another Challenger.

Hop was probably used to it, but it was odd for her to get such positive attention from strangers. Dolly vaguely wondered if she would get royalties or something from her League card sales. 

Dolly slowly made her way toward Hop, and her heart was beating in her ears. There were a lot of other Challengers grouped around him… and more than half of them were girls way prettier than she was. But, he said he would stay with her. It wasn’t like she had to talk much, and if he were beside her, then she would be fine. She could chat a little bit, maybe make some new friends, then head out for the night and finally go to bed. If those younger girls liked her enough for a picture and autograph, maybe she wasn’t so universally hated after all.

Dolly and Hop locked eyes from across the water and Dolly smiled. Just seeing him made her feel more at ease in the crowd and she waded toward him, toward her safety net. He looked away, however, as one of the girls beside him clutched at his arm and pulled him into her with a giggle. Dolly stopped and watched as he grinned at this other girl, flashing the same smile to her as she had seen so many times. 

Something tightened in her chest.

The girl pawed at his arm, and she could faintly hear her mutter something to him and glance at Dolly, as she held onto his upper arm. Then, he completely turned his back to Dolly as he started chatting with the other girl. The girl locked eyes with her, then looked back to Hop.

She waited, standing alone in the middle of the pool. He’d come back, he'd turn around. He’d come for her like he always had. She trusted him.

She watched the girl cling to his arm as he sat back up on the pool ledge, engrossed in conversation. She watched the girl whisper into his ear, watched him chuckle and nod.

She waited, and waited, and waited, and her heart dropped farther and farther as each second passed. 

A few other Challengers grouped around Hop and the girl, blocking him from sight. She heard him say something, heard the group around him laugh. She waded toward them again, trying to peer over the heads and the shoulders of the other Challengers. She tapped the arm of one of them, only for him to shove her hand away.

Hop said something else and the group around him laughed again. She backed up when the Challenger glared at her.

Maybe Hop just… forgot. Maybe he just forgot about her. Maybe he was tired of her. Maybe he was so tired of always having to come after her, always having to pick her up off the ground. He was tired of her, he was sick of her, because he thought she was ugly. He thought she was too much. He thought she was a burden. He could be so much farther along if she wasn’t weighing him down. He could be so much more popular if he wasn’t associated with the immoral ugly freak with the Nuzlocke Curse.

And suddenly, standing there in the middle of the pool alone, Dolly felt very, very, very ugly. She looked down and noticed how the ribbing on her swimsuit emphasized her gut, and how pink and splotchy her skin looked in the heat of the water. More strands of her hair were falling out of their braids, frizzing up in the steam.

No wonder he was looking at that other girl. She was perfect, with a perfect toned and curvy body, a perfect laugh, a perfect smile. Her hair wasn’t frizzy, her skin wasn’t bruised, blemished, and scabbed. She laughed and talked and was probably funny and outgoing and charismatic - just like Hop. She was probably everything Dolly wasn’t.

She knew this was stupid. She knew this was a bad idea. She knew she would end up alone and embarrassed. She knew it was stupid to believe that people would actually want to get to know her. She knew it was stupid to think that she could make any friends, and all that was left was for someone to push her down and throw something at her. The doors around her heart closed again, deliberately, hard. She should have known. They were probably making fun of her, too, joking about how stupid she looked, how horrible she was. What an idiot.

Dolly shook the sting from her eyes and made her way to their things, and she shoved on her shoes and picked up her jacket. She heard his laugh echo from across the chamber, even over the clamoring and splashing of the others at the festival. It stabbed into her heart. She picked up her phone, only to see a text from Hop.

_Hey u can go if u want_

Her heart dropped further.

Another chat bubble appeared, then disappeared. Dolly looked up to where he was sitting.

He was sitting next to this girl now, and her hand was resting on top of his. 

He didn’t even care if she was there. He didn’t want her there with him and this other beautiful girl and the other more popular Challengers.

He said he would be there for her. He knew what she had been through, knew how hard it was for her to come, and he said he would be there for her. He was the only one she had, and he wasn’t there.

He lied to her.

And suddenly, Dolly’s self-pity turned to anger. The heat from the room was nothing compared to the fury burning in her throat, nothing compared to the pressure in her jaw as she clenched her teeth together.

She had been through so much in those past two days, and it took everything she had to be brave and come out for _him_ and he _lied_ to her. The whole world hated her, and she could be sleeping in her room with her Pokémon next to her, but instead she was getting shoved away by some Challenger, instead she was standing here _watching him flirt with some girl._ Did he even recognize what she’d been through?! She had barely _eaten,_ she had barely _slept,_ and here she was, coming out so _he_ would be happy. She started this entire journey, this entire stupid Gym Challenge, for _him._

And he _lied_ to her.

She was sick of crying. She was sick of being shoved around. She was sick of sobbing into the fur of his stupid jacket. She was sick of being pitiful and sad and always clinging to him. She didn’t need him to be safe. She didn’t need him at all. She didn’t need a _liar._

Dolly seethed and clenched her fists as she stood on the heated tiles of the Hero’s Bath.

Know what?

Fine.

He could do whatever he wanted.

And so could she. 

She kicked off her shoes, threw her jacket back onto the chair, tucked her body more comfortably into her swimsuit, and unfurled her hair. It fell around her face in platinum waves as Dolly peered about the area. Sonia said there were Gym Leaders here, right? So that must mean…

From over the splashing of the pool and the wafting of the Carkol ash, her gaze met bright blue eyes.

If people were going to talk about her, may as well give them something to talk about.

She made her way through the crowd, swaying her hips as she stepped across the tiles. Each step was powerful, each step was confident, all fueled by the rage burning in every muscle fiber. 

He was standing among a few other Gym Leaders, all grouped within earshot of the Challengers sitting on the pool edge. She overheard Nessa whisper.

“Leave her alone, Raihan, that girl doesn’t need any more trouble.”

Over the laughter and splashes from the pool, she could barely make out his response.

“She wants it.”

It was as if they were magnets pulling together; the closer Dolly moved, the closer Raihan moved. Strands of her hair wisped behind her as she lifted her chin, proudly stepping past the Challengers seated at the pool edge. She needed no acceptance from them, there was no need for them to part for her when she only wanted the striking blue gaze of one man. They finally met in the middle, standing only a few feet from the pool ledge as the steam wafted around them. 

“It’s nice to see you again, Raihan,” she said, her voice dripping with as much honey as she could muster. 

“I’d say the pleasure’s all mine,” he grinned. 

His eyes slowly trailed down, paused at her chest, paused at her hips, down her thighs, as if his gaze itself was eating her alive. She tossed her hair back, exposed her neck, her shoulders, her smile, as she willed him to stare at her, willed him to make it obvious.

His eyes flashed back up to hers as he leaned his elbows on the high top behind him. It was Dolly’s turn for a lingering gaze, and she took in the chiseled ridges and smooth skin. It wasn’t hard for her to stare, as her own eyes were hungry for the tall frame that stood before her. Raihan watched her, and a crooked grin inched onto his face. 

“Like what you see?”

Dolly tossed her hair again and smiled delicately.

“Let’s just say it’s been too long since I’ve seen my favorite Gym Leader, and I just might prefer seeing him like this.”

Raihan raised his eyebrows at her boldness. He chuckled.

“Yeah? Well, this festival did come at the perfect time,” Raihan said. “I’ve got to be in top form if I plan to beat you when you come to visit me and my Gym. Training with such a type imbalance around here was tough, but it’s perfect for my team,” 

He leaned forward. 

“And a night with you is perfect for me.”

Good line, and just loud enough. She giggled and tossed her hair behind her shoulder, and the strands fell like silk. 

“Sounds like a good day… and a good night,” Dolly said, looking up at him through her eyelashes. “Coming up this way was pretty tough for me, but I’m not surprised you had no trouble. Traveling around Galar shouldn’t be a problem for someone with your…” 

She glanced to see if Hop was watching before letting her eyes trail over every bit of Raihan. 

“...Physique.” 

Raihan raised an eyebrow and grinned again. Her eyes were locked on his mouth as he bit his lip, showcasing a fang, so she didn’t notice how he glanced to Hop as well. He leaned toward her, and her heart pounded.

“So, Dolly, I noticed those girls taking a picture with you earlier, and I couldn’t believe that I have yet to have that honor,” he said, flipping his phone around his fingers.

“I’m sure we could change that.” 

As his Rotom phone positioned itself in front of them, she guided his hand from around her shoulders to around her waist. She puffed her chest out and popped her hip as she had seen other girls do around her and leaned into him, smiling delicately. She could see past the Rotom phone to Hop, who was now fully glaring in their direction.

“Hold on, better idea,” Raihan whispered in her ear. 

He sat back in one of the tall chairs behind him and held his arm out for Dolly. She stepped toward him, and in one swift movement he picked her up and set her on his lap. She had to brace her hand on his chest to not fall on her face from the momentum. Her breath caught in her throat as his eyes met hers, and the flickering of the torches around them added a warm glow to his features.

With no fabric protecting her skin, Dolly’s nerves trembled when his fingers grazed down her spine. Her first impression was correct in that his hand could span her entire back. His touch was delicate, slow, until he finally wove around her hip and set his hand on her leg. She tried to hide her shiver when his fingers lightly trailed up her thigh.

She glanced over to the pool ledge. Hop’s brow was furrowed, and his shoulders were tense as he ignored the girl and Challengers prodding at him. 

The camera clicked, and Dolly made a point to stay just a second longer where they were. She stared into his glowing blue eyes, trailed her fingers over the hand that rested on her thigh, then slid off his lap. Raihan stood as well, and his hand grazed over the small of her back.

“So, will you be in town long? Only Piers left before you come visit me again,” he said as he set his phone onto the table.

“I’m off to Spikemuth next, but I’m here tonight,” she said, still as melodically as she could. She hadn’t ever really batted her eyelashes before, but figured it was an excellent time to start.

“What a coincidence, I’ve just decided that I'll be here tonight too,” Raihan grinned again. 

Then, he leaned closer, and his bright blue eyes were practically tearing into her skin. 

“I’ve always known you were beautiful, Dolly, but seeing you like this is almost unfair… and awful hard to resist.”

Dolly giggled, pawed at his arm like she had seen the other girl do, and his hand slowly trailed lower on her back. Geez, he was good at this, had she not been so furious she’d probably be a quivering puddle.

“You two know this is, like, a family festival, right?” she heard as Hop finally stormed up from behind them. “Probably shouldn’t be drooling all over each other so publicly.”

“He’s right, we should go somewhere private,” Raihan purred.

In the corner of her eye, she could see Hop clench his fists.

“We were just talking,” Dolly said to Hop, though she was still holding eye contact with Raihan. She tried batting her eyelashes again.

“You got something in your eye, mate? You look like you’re having a seizure,” Hop huffed, crossing his arms. 

She glared at Hop. He was puffing out his chest, trying to stand a little taller, though he was nowhere near matching Raihan.

“Surprised to see you made it this far, Leon’s little brother,” Raihan laughed lazily.

“Uh-huh,” Hop huffed through his clenched jaw, glancing to Raihan’s hand as it trailed a little lower.

“Well,” Dolly said, rolling her eyes back up to Raihan. “It’s getting late,”

His crooked grin appeared as his eyes trailed down her body again. She could almost hear Hop’s teeth grinding.

“But it was _really_ nice seeing you here, Raihan... And perhaps I’ll see you again later tonight,” she said as she turned on her heel. She tossed her hair behind her again, and swayed her hips as she sauntered off.

That should do it. She slipped on her shoes and jacket and strutted outside the chamber. The emitting steam still warmed the air around her, and little snowflakes were still cascading down from the sky, flickering in the glow of the torches and fairy lights. She barely made it to the plaza outside the bath before Hop marched up behind her.

“What the hell was that?! ‘ _Look at your sexy body prancing around Galar,’_ ” he mocked in a high-pitched voice as he tugged on his jacket. “‘ _It was reeeaaaally nice seeing you, let’s snog in your hotel room later!’_ Never in my life have I seen you act like that!”

Dolly’s jaw dropped, and she spun on her heel.

“Excuse me? I can act however _I’d like_ , thank you very much. And you’re the one who made me come to this bloody festival anyway, may as well talk to someone since you were obviously _busy_.”

“Yeah, well, it was weird, not like you at all,” Hop continued. Then, he jabbed a finger at her. “And, I know for a _fact_ Lee told you to stay away from him. He literally sat you on his lap! You can’t tell me that that didn’t cross the line?! And how he was - ugh - _touching_ you like that?!”

“Whatever, there’s nothing wrong with me getting a little male attention,” Dolly scoffed, crossing her arms. 

“Not from him! He’s crazy, did you even see how he was looking at you?! It was like he was tearing your clothes off right there!” Hop huffed. “I give you plenty of attention - good, _normal_ attention - and I’m a male!”

“Ha! Right, next time I’ll politely wait in line for you to be done talking to all the girls touching _you,_ ” Dolly spat in return. 

She smiled smugly despite herself. That should show him that she could do whatever she wanted, too. She turned to leave, only to stop as he gripped her arm.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked. “You want me to treat you like a piece of meat?”

“Don’t touch me,” she growled, ripping his hand off her arm.

“What’s with you lately?” he fumed, throwing his hands up. “Geez, Dolls, I’m just trying to help! You’ve been so careless, I don’t want you to make another mistake!”

Dolly froze and an incredulous huff escaped.

“ _Excuse me?_ Mistake? And what might that be, huh? Talking to another person at a festival with a billion other people around? Talking to someone after you said you would stay with me and _didn’t?_ What could he have even done with everyone watching?!”

“Did you not notice what he _was_ doing with everyone watching? Arceus, his hands all over - ugh, whatever, that’s not what I meant, and you know it. You don’t even know Raihan, and this isn’t about him,”

“I know that he makes me feel like a girl instead of just some ugly freak!” Dolly spat. “He’s the only man in my entire life to call me beautiful, Hop, and that makes me feel special when everyone else has only ever called me ugly or average,”

Hop’s brow furrowed, and the anger slowly melted from his face. That expression made her blood boil - she didn’t want his _pity_. She clenched her fists and jabbed a finger at him.

“And if it’s not about him then what’s it about, huh?” she continued. “Will you please tell me, since obviously you know much better than I do about everything always?”

The anger was back, and his shoulders tensed. Hop seethed, and his breath wafted around them. After a moment he threw his hands up with a grunt of frustration.

“See?! It’s that, right there, that attitude of yours! Lately you’ve been so careless and that’s what is putting you and your Pokémon in danger!”

“I can _do_ whatever I _want._ And what do you mean my Pokémon, are you referencing _something specific?”_ she asked, voice low.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Hop growled in return. “And so does your team of five.”

“What,” she said, the word dripping from her mouth. “Did you just say...?”

He raised his hands in defense.

“I’m just saying this because I care about you, and I care about your Pokémon.”

The snow drifted around them, speckling white against the dark blue of the sky. Her knuckles were turning just as white from how hard she was clenching them, and her nails dug into the skin of her palm.

“You think I asked for this?” she said, voice barely audible. “You think I want this Curse in my blood? Do you _KNOW_ what I’ve been through to get here?!” 

People around them started to glance their way and started to murmur. Hop started to tremble, too, his shoulders quaking. 

“You. You. You.” Hop spat each word out like something bitter. “It’s always about you, isn’t it? Poor Dolly, she’s crying again. Look at Dolly, she needs help again. Oh, it’s Dolly, she is so unique, so interesting. Do you know what I’ve been through? Huh? Or do you ever take a _second_ to think about anyone that isn’t yourself?!”

“Have you ever tried? Huh?” he continued. “Do you know what it’s like, growing up with your big brother as the Champion of Galar? Someone you wish you could know, someone you wish would be there for you, but he’s too bright to even look at?”

She stomped forward again.

“Do you know how hard _I’ve_ worked to get here? Arceus, Hop, I’m just trying to break this stupid Curse! If you lose a battle, you’re out some money and you scurry to the Pokémon Center, all healed up! If I lose, _they die_. And if you’re so much more noble than I am, what are you chasing after, huh? Glory, success? Some goal,” she sneered, crossing her arms.

“I’m chasing after autonomy!” he yelled back. “I want a name, Dolls, I want to be called Hop. I don’t want to be known as ‘the Champion’s Little Brother.’ I don’t want to be known as the reject second kid, the one with the older brother who is the perfect Champion that all of Galar adores. I want to be seen for my own sake, not for sitting in the shadow of someone else!” 

He tore his fingers through his hair in exasperation. 

“I want to be someone besides the nameless Trainer who lives in the shadow of his brother and the shadow of his mate. I don’t want to be the nameless Trainer who keeps having his _one_ dream crushed time after time by his bloody neighbor who barely cares about anything but herself!”

A few people were gathering around now, checking out the commotion. Hop jabbed a finger at her and took a threatening step forward.

“You don’t understand,” he continued. “You know why? Because you’re an only child. You’re an only child with an extra interesting element so the whole country is fascinated by you, too. One with a fascinating and dramatic problem, something so dramatic that it’s the only thing that would get you off your couch to actually live a life. Before now, you’ve _never_ dreamed about anything. You’re too scared to do anything, Dolls! You’ve sat on your arse for as long as I've known you, only doing the bare minimum!”

“And yet I’ve beaten you every single time we’ve battled!” she yelled. “Every. Single. Time. You know why? Because _you’re_ erratic. You care too much about stupid things. Who cares how you throw your bloody Poké Ball? You rush into things before you even think! I don’t know how many times I’ve had to rush after you to save you because you don’t process what you’re doing before you do it!”

Hop’s shoulders stiffened. His knuckles were turning white as he clenched them.

“You’re calling _me_ erratic?” he growled under his breath. He never broke eye contact as he spoke, and with each word his voice grew louder. “You’re calling _me_ ignorant? Tell me, _Dolores,”_

She flinched back. He had never spit her name out like that before. 

“How many times have I peeled you off the sidewalk to dry your tears? How many times have I ignored myself to come to your rescue? And who, between us, still _has their whole team alive?”_

The room was silent. His voice grew louder as he took a step closer, fists still clenched. 

“Who here has a full team, still able to fight? And who here has a slew of Pokémon _dead_ because of her carelessness?” 

He was standing only inches from her now, his full height apparent as he loomed over her. He grabbed at her necklace and flicked through the charms. 

“Time to add another one here. Six Pokémon: Posey, Lacey, Mateo, Sap, and more, all dead. They’re dead because of their Trainer’s _selfishness_. Who here can literally talk to Pokémon, and still not understand when they’ve had enough? You should have stopped after Faline, Dolls, you should have never picked up another Poké Ball. You should have never moved to Postwick. They’re all dead because of _you_.”

She swallowed hard. Her voice felt white, the fury burning in her throat. 

“How dare you. How _dare_ you bring them into this - bring _her_ into this! You have no right to say their names,” she yelled, shoving his hand off her. 

He took a step back and raised his hands. 

“But you know what? You’ve done one thing right. It makes sense for you to wear a Pecha berry.”

Then, Hop leaned in and whispered in her face. 

“You’re poison.”

Their gazes pierced one another’s, slicing to the core. 

“Poison. Seeping into people and Pokémon’s skin like sludge,” he continued. “Making them fall in love with you, only to have you tear their heart out. Only to have you kill them slowly, burn in their veins, then they’re dead within the month.”

The words wafted around them like the steam of the bath. The snow fell eerily, poetically, as if the whole world didn’t exist, yet was watching all the same. Dolly opened her mouth, then closed it. She swallowed hard, and her voice shook as she began again.

“Do you know why I don’t eat, Hop? Do you know why I don’t sleep? Do you know why I don’t wear a jacket, and why I don’t take care of myself? It’s because I _hate myself_ , Hop. It’s because I don’t think I deserve to be happy. Do you _know_ how conflicted am I _every single day?_ How _selfish_ I feel? All those people throwing things at me, pushing me into the dirt, calling me a selfish monster, a freak, a murderer, I can never say anything back because they’re right! All of them!”

She threw her hands up.

“I know I’m selfish, Hop, I know! I’ve known it from the beginning, but I don't care! This is the first time I've ever cared about anything, and I’m not letting it go! I’m not going back, never, no matter what people say, no matter what people call me.”

Dolly stepped back, and her voice quieted. 

“I could take it from all of them, always. Anyone, everyone, always. I could take the cruel words and the injuries and the insults, because I knew you would be there for me. I knew you would be there for me when they all pushed me down and spit in my face. I could take it from everyone else...” 

Her voice finally cracked as she shook her head. 

“...But not you. You can’t be the one to tell me that. You were supposed to be the one that was there for me, throughout anything. The one who took care of me even when I didn’t take care of myself. The one who would love me, even when I didn’t love myself… I thought you would be different. I've been running away from everyone and everything for half of my life, Hop, and finally, I trusted someone. I trusted _you._ I trusted that you would help hold me together as I figured this out. I trusted that you would help keep me safe.”

Her lip quivered. 

“And now I know that was a mistake. Here you are, calling me names, calling me poison, a monster, a murderer... just like everyone else.”

Hop took another step toward her, and his brows started to furrow.

“Dolls… I didn’t mean…”

“Get away from me,” she spat. 

He didn’t move.

“I said get away from me!” she yelled. 

She shoved him in the chest, and he stumbled backwards. 

“Bede was right,” Dolly said with a crack in her voice. Her breath was smoking before her, and her sentence echoed throughout the chamber. “It doesn’t matter if you drag down Leon’s name if no one knows who you are. Because even while being a selfish monster, a murderer, I’m still a better Trainer than you. You’re rubbish. You’re a rubbish Trainer, and you’ll never be like Leon. You can’t look at him because he’s too bright, and he doesn’t look at you because you’re not worth looking at. You’ll always sit in his shadow, doomed to be the unknown, mediocre, useless Champion’s Little Brother.”

Her words fell onto the snowbanks around them. The only movement was from the flickering of the torches. The snow fell eerily as something broke in Hop’s eyes. 

She was glad. She hoped that hurt.

“Now leave me alone,” she whispered. “I never want to see you again.” 

She would collect her things and leave. Leave behind Circhester, leave behind Sap’s grave, and leave behind Hop, standing still in the silent falling snow.


	19. Poison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile)

**Chapter 19 - Poison**

“C’mon, Dolly, what happened?” Jackson asked as he jogged to keep up with his Trainer. 

They had left Circhester in a flurry after Dolly slammed into the hotel room and started shoving things into her bag. When her Pokémon asked what was wrong, she only glared as she continued furiously packing in silence. Theodore had tried to persuade her to stay in the hotel a little longer, as it was practically midnight when she stormed in, but she wouldn’t hear any of it. 

The moon was high as they made their way through Route 9, scaring off the Team Yell grunts who tried to stop their progress. It only took a glare from Dolly before they stammered some excuse and scuttled off. The moonlight cast a blue tint over the snowy beaches and dark water, and the light glimmered as the waves pushed against the shore. 

“Was it Hop?” Jackson prodded, stepping around in front of her. 

“Move, Jackson,” she growled.

“Not until you tell me what happened.”

She stormed around him and shoved his shoulder with hers as she walked by.

“I’m just trying to help!” he called at her back. He jogged up next to her again. “Did he hurt you?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well I do! You’ve been angry for hours, Dolly, we’re all worried about you,”

“I’m fine.”

“Liar.”

“Just let it go!” she yelled as she turned to him. “Yes, it was Hop! Yes, he hurt me! I knew it was stupid to go, I knew I looked stupid when I went outside in that stupid outfit, and everything anyone has ever said about me is right! I’m a selfish monster who doesn’t care about anyone but herself. I’m cruel, I’m lazy, and I’m ugly, inside and out. Half of the Pokémon I’ve ever caught are dead and it’s my fault because I’m poison. And now, I’m finally accepting it, and all of it makes me angry. Happy?”

Dolly stormed past him again, and Jackson’s furrowed gaze caught the faint tears that fell silently from her eyes. The fire in him was slowly raging, the heat was steaming around him, and the snow was melting beneath his feet. He slowly shook his head, and through a clenched jaw whispered to himself.

“He’ll pay for this.”

They made their way through the route, trekking through the snow and over the waves in silence, save Dolly calling out orders for a handful of Pokémon battles. She blew catching a Mantine and she kicked at the sand again. 

Dolly’s mind trailed the further they walked from Circhester as the guilt built in her chest. She couldn’t deny it… everything he said was true. She was careless. She had missed catching an array of Pokémon because she was distracted, ever since the beginning of her journey. She could have prevented the deaths of many of her other Pokémon who had sacrificed themselves for her, if only she had prepared better. Careless, selfish, unprepared, monster. Poison.

She let out a sigh, and her anger started to dissipate as the steam from her breath floated in the air. She looked to Jackson, who was still dutifully marching beside her. His brow furrowed, and he held his paw out to her. Her breath caught in her throat.

Poisoned.

And she finally broke. Dolly sobbed quietly into the night air, slowly shaking her head as the reality of those words hit her. She was poison. Not just a monster, not just a freak, but poison. She was poison that lured people in only to use them for her selfish gain. She was poison that seeped into skin, killed from within. Her cruelty wasn’t in killing her Pokémon, it was in how she lured them into trusting her first.

Like poison.

Jackson rushed to her and wrapped his arms around her. She couldn’t even lift her arms in return, so she stood there, weeping into the night, as her Cinderace squeezed his arms around her.

“I’m a monster, Jackson. I’m poison.”

He squeezed her harder, trying to warm his Trainer and embed every bit of love into her limp and trembling body.

“You can’t love me, Jackson. I’m poison.”

He stepped back and squeezed her arms. 

“Stop it Dolly. I can love you, and I do love you.”

“You can’t, I’m just going to hurt you,” she whimpered as she shook her head. “You’re just saying that because I've tricked you too. I’ve tricked you into trusting me because I’m poison. One day you’ll die because of me.”

Her eyes widened at the thought, and she tore his arms off her. She shoved him away and stumbled back.

“You need to get away from me Jackson,” she said as she started to breathe harder. “You need to get away from me before I kill you too.”

Jackson gazed at his Trainer. The melodic sound of the night waves was laced with Dolly’s breath, which was quickly speeding. When he reached towards her again, she stumbled back, and ripped off her necklace.

The delicate chain snapped, and the charms glinted in the moonlight as they fell like droplets of gold blood. They throbbed against the white background of the snow, each one barely making a sound as they hit the ground. And yet, it was like they reverberated through the mantle of the earth. Each one hit the ground as if it weighed as much as Vikavolt, as much as a Riolu, as much as a Deerling. The Pecha berry charm was the heaviest, and it rippled through Dolly’s body as it landed. It lay before her in the snow, larger than the rest, and shimmering just as Dolly’s tears did when they tumbled down her face.

Jackson looked up at her gently.

“Dolly, stop. Look at me and focus. You’re panicking and saying things you don’t mean. He told you lies and you’re believing them. You were vulnerable, and he hit you right where he knew it would hurt the most.”

Dolly shook her head again. Her tears tumbled as quickly as the shooting stars above them.

“I’m poi-”

“You’re not. I need you to try to believe me,” Jackson said, staring into her eyes. “I will tell you as many times as I have to that I love you, and that I will stay by your side forever. You’re hurt, and you’ve been through a lot, and he didn’t help you like a friend should have. I will be here for you, and act as a friend should. Don’t you trust me, Dolly?”

She nodded.

“Then believe me when I say that I love you because I choose to love you. You chose to love me after I’ve screamed at you, after I ignored you, after I hurt you after Mateo died. You forgave me and loved me, and we promised to be better friends to each other. Now breathe.”

She nodded again and took in a breath as her Cinderace did.

“Everyone’s got problems Dolly, it’s not just you," he continued. "Yours are just blown out of proportion so all of Galar knows about them. You’re sensitive, you’ve got a big heart so it’s easier to hurt you, and he used that against you. I’ve got problems, Hudson’s got problems, Rosa’s got problems, and you still love all of us. You’ve got problems, and we still love you.”

Their breath wafted around them in the glow of the moon. Jackson was like a comet before her; blazing white and red, a beautiful and powerful force, and never leaving her gravity. When she looked at him, at her devoted friend, Dolly could only breathe out a sigh of wonder.

“I will stay by your side forever. You’re not poison, Dolly. Now you say it too.”

Her brows furrowed.

“Jackson, I-”

“Please?”

She swallowed and nodded. 

“I’m not… I’m not poison.”

“You’re kind.”

“I’m kind.”

“You’re encouraging.”

“I’m encouraging.”

“You’re worthy of love.”

“I’m… I’m…” she whimpered as she softly shook her head. “I’m… I’m…”

Jackson breathed out a sigh.

“I’m… I’m…”

The tears tumbled down as she sobbed. Again, they twinkled like the melancholy stars above them.

“We’ll get there,” Jackson smiled, and he wiped a tear from her cheek. “For now, I will love you enough for the both of us. We all will.”

He bent down and picked up the charms that were scattered in the snow. They weren’t liquid, as Dolly thought, and they only weighed as much as golden charms weighed. Jackson tucked them safely into her pocket.

“I’m sure Rouge can fix it,” he smiled, holding out his paw. 

Dolly nodded and took his paw in her hand.

That was how they walked through the rest of the route, and Dolly’s breathing finally slowed. The moon was still in the sky, but was now tucking itself beneath the mountain ridges on the horizon. Faint light blues glowed in the east, and the western stars were yawning in the light, just as the Trainer was when she reached the final beach of Route 9.

As she and Jackson plodded along, hand in paw, their breath swirled around them against the cold air. It reminded her of the mist in the Slumbering Weald, the way it wafted around them. Back then, her life seemed so different. She spent her days sitting on her couch, watching Pokémon matches, and scrolling through social media as her mum prodded her to start a hobby or find a job in town. It was that fateful day that she was pulled from her couch to meet the undefeated Champion, and that same day she met Jackson, and that same day she had her vision in the Slumbering Weald. That same day she was called the Shield of Galar. Dolly looked up at the dawn slowly creeping to claim more of the sky. 

Was she? Is this what she should be fighting for? Could she really trust in herself, trust in her Pokémon, just as the vision said? She looked to Jackson faithfully walking beside her, as he had since the beginning. If she had never agreed to get off her couch, she would have never met Jackson. None of her Pokémon would be dead, but then again, none of them would have met each other, nor would she have met any of them.

Even among all the cruel truths that were so often spat at her, she was sure of one thing: her relationships with her Pokémon were stronger than they’d ever been. From Jackson, she learned steadfast loyalty. From Hudson, she learned quiet determination. From Rosa, she learned blazing confidence. From Theodore, she learned unwavering protection. From Rouge, she learned clever persistence. Even from her past Pokémon, she learned gentility from Sap, attentiveness from Mateo, sweetness from Lacey, wisdom from Fay, courage from Posey, and she learned the love of a friend from Faline.

She breathed deeper as she thought through each of the Pokémon partners that had been with her in her journey. Had she never left her couch in Postwick, she would have never learned such valuable lessons from such valuable friends. She may have a slew of flaws, but what Hudson said at Sap’s grave played again through her head. 

_“I can say with my entire self, the most true thing I have ever known, is that you will not find a team who will love you and care for you more than we will. You are free to leave, but know that you will never find anything like you will find with us.”_

Dolly had never cared for anything more in her entire life. She would risk anything for her Pokémon, she would risk anything for her friends. And she was risking everything. She threw away her comfortable house and cozy monotony for blistered feet, scarred face, and many nights of crying herself to sleep. She traded away complacent anonymity for the media stabbing at her integrity, she traded affirmation from her family for insults from strangers, and she traded guaranteed structure in a stable home for the risk of reaching towards a goal that she wasn’t even sure was obtainable. But, even through all the struggles and hardships, through all the fights and tears, she had never felt more alive. The mediocrity that once stained her body had faded as the dawn finally arrived. 

“Thank you, Jackson.”

He nodded and squeezed her hand. 

“You are worthy of love. I’ll say it each and every day, until the day you believe it too.”

She sighed. Then, she yawned, and hugged her Cinderace. As Jackson warmed her, something flicked in her heart. Thanks to her friend, it was as if that bit of truth, that bit of self-love, had wormed its way into her slowly, waiting, sitting at the base of her heart, looking up expectantly, until the day that it could finally blossom.

Dolly stretched, pat Jackson on the head, and plodded further along the route as the sun rose. After a while, they were met with a group of Gym Challengers, pedestrians, and even a few police officers as they made it to the top of the hill. The pair walked up to the crowd and glanced about to see what the commotion was.

“Gate to Spikemuth’s closed,” a police officer explained, nodding his head toward the grungy gray garage door. “We’re seeing what’s going on, but for now, seems like no one is getting in or out,”

Dolly yawned, nodded, and took a seat on a box near the entrance. She let out a deep sigh as her eyes drifted closed. She and her team had traveled all throughout the night and she had been moving non-stop since before her battle with Melony, and Dolly slumped against the tin wall behind her as it all caught up to her.

“Not sure how long it’ll take,” the police officer called out to her. Dolly nodded and hopped off the box again. 

She called a cab into the Wild Area for a bit of training. She plodded alongside Theodore, and her head swiveled about. Opportunities for new Pokémon were in short supply now that she was so far in the Gym Challenge, but there were a couple spots in the Wild Area she hadn’t been yet. Dolly yawned, and small tears squeezed out of her eyes as she trudged forward. 

“My Lady, you must rest,” her Corviknight sighed as he looked at his bedraggled Trainer. “When was the last time you slept? The bags beneath your eyes have darkened considerably.”

“Um… I can’t remember,” Dolly yawned again as she peered around the grass. “But I’ve got to battle the Gym in Spikemuth next, then Raihan, then I’ll be closer to breaking this bloody Curse.”

“If I remember correctly, was it not the night we met Rouge?” Theodore asked. He lifted a wing to her face and brushed a soft feather against her cheek. “Even then, you were interrupted in the middle of the night by her stealing your things. My Lady please, we are all worried for your health. You may rest your head upon me, I will gladly act as a downy pillow.”

“I’m fine, really. I’ll beat Piers and _then_ I’ll sleep,” she said. “Thank you though, Theodore.”

After another mournful sigh from her Corviknight, she trotted into a patch of tall grass. The blades seemed to all blend together, and as Dolly stared, she started to sway as they did, until she shook her head into focus. She yawned again and raised her hand to her mouth.

Dolly froze when a glob of slime ran down and seeped between her fingers. She looked at it in disgust and turned slowly to see what was looming over her. A floating ball of goo was hovering over her head, blocking out the sun.

“Wassup.”

Dolly screamed and lurched backward, flinging off the speckles from the Solosis above her.

“My Lady!” Theodore called as he raced toward her and reared for battle.

“Awh yeah homeboy let’s friggin’ go!” the Solosis cried. “Taste this Reflect!”

Theodore lunged back and hurled a gust of wind. The Solosis fumbled backwards with a cackle, then did a backflip.

“Yeah, alright, now check this out! Light Screen!”

A shimmering wall of light appeared between the Solosis and Corviknight, sparkling in the midday sun. Theodore hurled another gust of wind, only for the Solosis to cackle again.

“Charm! Boom! You feelin’ charmed, bird?!”

Theodore paused before he hurled another gust of wind. He and Dolly watched the small Solosis bounce around, skid through the grass, then do a backflip off the rock beside them.

“And now Recover, let’s _friggin’ gooooo!”_

Dolly and her Corviknight stood as the Solosis started to breakdance on the grass while simultaneously beatboxing about the move Recover. 

“Bam, bam, ooh, yeah, check it out, _whaaaaat._ Pip is here and ready to party. What, you scared?” the Solosis, apparently named Pip, called at them. “Scared of this sick nasty Solosis?”

Dolly and Theodore glanced at each other, then back to the Solosis.

“Do you… not know any attacks?” Dolly asked.

“What’chu talkin’ ‘bout, girl?! I just used four?! You can’t even comprehend, fool!”

“...Right.” Dolly said as she tossed a Poké Ball.

“Oh shi-!”

The ball wiggled three times and clicked.

“That was… weird.” Dolly said as she and Theodore gazed at the Poké Ball on the ground. Theodore heaved out a sigh as Dolly picked the ball up. 

“Why can we not add a nice, quiet, tea-loving Pokémon to our team? Hudson and I are quickly being outnumbered by these ridiculous hooligans.”

Dolly chuckled, pat her Corviknight, and started trudging again to Spikemuth.

The crowd of people was still milling about, though the group had thinned considerably. Dolly settled herself back onto the box beside the wall, curled her legs up under her, and tossed out Rouge. Although Theodore’s offer of taking a nap on his feathers was tempting, Dolly didn’t want to sleep through it if the door to Spikemuth opened. Instead, she let her mind drift back to that odd encounter with Pip, her new Solosis. The last time she had a Psychic Pokémon was back with her Meowstic, Dia. She left after they all made it to Circhester.

Dolly’s stomach churned at the very thought of that city. Losing Sap, sobbing for hours, and her fight with… ugh.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the memory altogether. Rouge was out and fiddling with the necklace chain she had snapped earlier. Dolly heaved out a sigh, then yawned again.

“Rouge?”

“Huh.”

“Do you… do you think I’m like poison?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“‘Cuz you’re not.”

“No, I mean like, do you think I… make people trust me? Just to hurt them?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Her Weavile huffed and turned to her. 

“Do we really need to have another crying session? Where we all hug and snivel?”

Dolly’s eyes shot down as she tucked her arms around her knees. 

“Sorry…”

Rouge’s brow furrowed, and she gently set the necklace down. She sighed as she looked at her Trainer, who’s eyes were already glassy. 

“Don’t cry, Dolly. If you cry, you’ll make me say something heartfelt and embarrassing to make you not cry.”

Dolly turned her head and sniffled into her jacket. Rouge sighed again.

“Dolly, I think people trust you because you’re trustworthy. You’re thoughtful, you’re kind, and you work hard for your friends. I don’t know where this is coming from, about all this poison, but you need to get it out of your head. I think you actually may be too innocent and naive to trick anyone into doing anything. You’re not _that_ smart.”

The Weavile smiled as Dolly let out a laugh into her jacket sleeve. Rouge stood, picked up the necklace, and stepped over. She nudged Dolly’s arm.

“Fixed it.”

Dolly’s pink and puffy eyes flicked from her Weavile to the necklace glinting in the sun.

“You can be whatever you want, though, I guess. Poison, a Pecha berry, maybe even a Cheri berry,” Rouge said as she set the necklace down beside Dolly. She took a step back and set her hands on her hips with a toothy grin. “May need to give a Cheri berry to your muscular mate Hop, as I’m sure he was paralyzed when he saw you at that festival.”

Dolly’s heart dropped at the very mention of his name, and she tucked her face into her jacket sleeve again. Rouge’s breath shot in through her teeth.

“Not so much, huh?” she sighed. “Well whatever, I always thought he was ugly anyway. His pants were too short, and I had to look at those scrawny ankles. Like, where’s the flood, dude? And what the hell are those things on his head? Bangs? Pinecones? Grown-ass man can’t even do his hair right.”

Dolly laughed into her sleeve and looked back up at Rouge. She pulled her Weavile into a hug and smiled into her fur.

“Alright alright, here’s the sniveling and hugging, yeah yeah…” she grumbled. “I’ll punch him in the face next time I see him. Or Hudson can body slam him. You’ve got options.”

“Thanks, Rouge,” Dolly said, and gave her another squeeze. 

She kept her arms curled around her Weavile, despite her grumbling. Dolly closed her eyes again, feeling a bit warmer and bit more loved than she had only moments ago. She started to doze off until something hit her in the ear. Her eyes shot open and she whipped her head around for its source. Something hit her again, this time square in the forehead.

“Hey, Dolly!”

She turned to find the source of the harsh whisper. Two black pigtails bobbed from behind a corner. 

“Marnie?” 

Marnie placed a finger against her lips and beckoned Dolly to her. Dolly blinked a couple times, stood, and returned Rouge to her Poké Ball. She tried her best to be discreet as she weaved again through the crowd. Marnie led them through some hedges, tall grass, and over a fence. She didn’t even think to ask questions until they reached a gaping hole in the side of the wall into Spikemuth.

“I was born ‘ere so I know another way in.”

“Brilliant, thanks Marnie,” Dolly grinned. “I didn’t really want to wait for all those other Challengers to go against Piers next.”

Marnie smiled and nodded her head. Her eyes flicked around Dolly’s face as she tucked her hands in her jacket pocket. 

“You look pretty tired, Dolly, and you’ve got those bags under your eyes again. Are you sure you’re well enough for a Gym battle? You wouldn’t want anything to happen like it did… with your Wooloo…”

Dolly’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the dirt. 

“Thanks for caring, Marnie, but I’m fine, really. With the rate I’ve been going it shouldn’t take me long to beat Piers anyway, my Pokémon are pretty high leveled,” she ended with a grin.

Dolly bit back a yawn as she followed her fellow Gym Challenger into Spikemuth. Dark buildings and neon signs blurred as she stepped into the town, and she gazed up at the broken roofing above them. Notes from an electric guitar drifted through the air as they walked through.

Marnie and Dolly caught up with each other as they traveled through the dark town, discussing their battle strategies and their shock that so few other Challengers had made it this far. Dolly continued to stumble over the cans and litter strewn on the road, as she was unable to simultaneously focus on walking and on their conversation. 

“Did’ja just come in from Circhester?” Marnie asked as she turned into an alleyway. “I’ve been here in Spikemuth for a while m’self. Did’ja go to that festival? Piers told me about it, but neither of us are much on pool parties,”

“Yeah, it was pretty rubbish,” Dolly said, and she bit back another yawn. “It would have been better if you were there, though. I feel like none of the other Gym Challengers like me. When I tried to talk with them, they all ignored me.”

Marnie turned and offered her a soft smile.

“I kinda feel the same, none of ‘em talk to me much, either. They’ve got those weird cliques and I guess I’m not popular enough for ‘em. I don’t care though, I don’t wanna be friends with people like that. You’ve always been real nice,” Marnie added bashfully.

Dolly smiled in return, following Marnie out onto the main street of Spikemuth. A neon sign was flickering from a broken bulb, and it made the back of her eyes sore. Dolly lifted her glasses and rubbed at her eyes as Marnie talked with a group of Team Yell grunts. Well, scolded would be the more accurate term. She only caught bits of their conversation, as she was more interested in facing away from the flickering sign. 

They made it through a majority of the town, and were now standing at the edge of a large room with dark signs and neon lights scattered about the walls. Zigzagoon and Toxels bumbled about as their Team Yell Trainers laughed and drank. The notes from the guitar were blaring, and the flickering lights were making her head hurt. Dolly squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed at them again.

“So, you’re finally here, huh?”

Dolly looked up as the music stopped. All eyes were on her as a tall, thin man walked toward her. His shocking blue eyes were lined with a faint black eyeliner, and his monochrome ponytail cascaded down behind him. Seemed like she wasn’t the only one with bags under her eyes.

“Been waiting for you, since everyone’s been talkin’ about the Challenger with that Curse. That’s you, huh? You don’t seem so big and scary.”

Dolly nodded, glancing around at every person as the crowd watched her and the Gym Leader.

“Figured you’d at least be taller or somethin’,” he said as he gave a half-hearted shrug. “Well anyway, I’m Piers, Gym Leader and Marnie’s older brother. Thanks for bein’ her friend, she talks about you a lot.”

“Piers!” Marnie cried from the sideline.

“I’m not too great a Gym Leader,” he continued, ignoring his sister’s outcry. “Figured that’s why no one was comin’ to battle. But you’re here now, you ready?”

Dolly nodded again, though her head was still throbbing as the neon pink lights flickered from a sign on the wall. She followed Piers to the center of the cement pitch as the crowd tucked themselves on the sidelines to watch their battle.

Piers turned and smashed a mic stand into the ground. The speakers around her blared as he grinned, and the band behind him started up again. He sang into it, and the notes and chords struck her eardrums. She probably would have enjoyed it if it didn’t make her skull hurt. Piers threw out his first Pokémon - a Scrafty.

Scrafty was… Ground-type? No, that wasn’t right… It was Dark at least, since Piers was the Dark-type Gym Leader.

Dolly furrowed her brow as her head throbbed with the beat of the drum.

What was effective against Dark-types? Bug? Wait, she didn’t have any Bug-type Pokémon anymore. Psychic? No, Psychic was weak against Dark…

It was like her thoughts were mud as she closed her eyes to focus. People from the sidelines were yelling at her to hurry up and throw out a Poké Ball, and Piers’ Scrafty was one of them.

Ice was good against Ground-types, Dolly knew that much. She tossed out Rouge.

No, wait, Scrafty was Fighting, not Gound-type. Rouge landed a hit, and the Scrafty’s retaliation was catastrophic. Rouge had a weak defense, too, and the Weavile could barely stand after the Scrafty’s one Fighting-type attack.

Dolly shook her head, trying to focus on the battle before her. The pitch before her kept blurring, and it was getting harder to hold back the yawns that kept trying to escape.

Rouge struggled to stand as she heaved out puffs of air, and she swore under her breath. Dolly returned her to her Poké Ball and fumbled around in her pocket for another. A Flying-type should do well against a Fighting-type. Though she wanted this match to be a good training session, the way her vision was blurring wasn’t worth the risk. All of her Pokmeon were leveled higher than Piers’, so her Corviknight should be able to take care of Piers in no time. Theodore was in an Ultra Ball, right? She held back another yawn as she fished out his ball and chucked it out into the space before them. 

A Solosis appeared before her.

Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together as she heard some confused murmurs from the crowd.

This wasn’t Theodore… This was Pip. Dolly had no intention of using Pip, and she didn’t even realize she was still on the team after catching her in the Wild Area. She was so low leveled… and weak against Dark… Why was she in Theodore’s Poké Ball? She glanced down to her hand. Dolly’s eyes grew wide and she gasped.

She threw the wrong one.

Her head whipped back up to the arena.

“Oh man, these are some sick tunes!” Pip grinned, bobbing to the beat.

“No!” Dolly screamed. “Wait, she doesn’t know any attacks!”

Before she could rush and grab Pip, the Scrafty got to her first. 

It only took one attack.


	20. Raihan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile)

**Chapter 20 - Raihan**

Dolly shielded her eyes from the blazing sun outside of Spikemuth. She clutched a Dark Badge in her left hand, and Pip’s Poké Ball in her right. It was like the scratch of gravel on the pavement scratched against her ears, and Dolly had to brace herself on the fencing when her shoe caught on the ground. She hung her head, caught her breath, and the tears tapped the dirt beneath her.

She didn't get to know her. Pip was fascinating, strange, and Dolly didn’t even get to know her. Instead, she died. Her spunky nature was sucked from the world, all thanks to Dolly. All because she threw out the wrong Poké Ball. She couldn’t take care of her Pokémon.

Because she was distracted.

Because she was selfish. 

Because she was poison.

The voices of the furious crowds swarmed through her head like Beedrill buzzing as she slowly made her way down the path. She wasn’t sure what expression it was that Piers had on his face throughout their battle, either. Despair? Horror? Grief? Nausea? Perhaps all of them. She couldn’t tell, it was hard to focus when the neon lights kept flashing. Dolly stumbled every few steps down the Route 9 path, as her eyes stayed closed a second longer every time she blinked. Her head was still pounding, and she could barely lift her feet.

The buzzing in her head was intensifying, as every word that was screamed at her from each angry crowd whipped through her head in a flurry. She was the cause of such anger from the crowd, she was the cause of such conflict in the eyes of the Gym Leaders. Three in a row. Three in a row. Three in a row.

Her body was trembling, her head was pounding, and the buzzing laced itself through her veins as much as it did through her mind. It scratched and clawed at her, pricked and stabbed every bit of her.

A voice cut through the swarm, and the buzzing stopped.

He was talking with a group of other Gym Challengers standing outside of Spikemuth. He was standing tall, smiling as he always had, looking as he always did. He smiled as if nothing had happened, while she barely had the strength to stand.

He glanced up and their eyes met. His smile faded.

The world froze as golden eyes bore into brown. The wind barely blew, yet it was enough to suffocate her. The sun barley shone, yet it was enough to glint against the tears that continued to fall. She could barely move, and yet the buzzing started again. Her shoes scratched the pavement again, and the dark marks of her tears were like a breadcrumb path leading to Hammerlocke.

Perhaps she would drip into the earth, seep between the blades of grass that her shoes dragged through. Perhaps she would slowly melt with each step, slowly bubble away as her poisonous blood burned through her entirely. The truth of his words slithered under her skin with each step, then curled around the proof of the Poké Ball in her right hand. It didn’t even take a month this time, this Pokémon died within the day. It was like the mallet of a drum pounded in her head with each step she took. It struck behind her eyes when she coughed out another sob.

“Dolls,”

She turned. She hadn’t seeped into the ground yet, though she wanted to. She expected him to walk through her, grimace at what he stepped in, then wipe the remnants of the purple sludge she was into the grass.

“Dolls, look-”

“Please,” she whispered. Her voice was as fragile as the will it took to keep the tears from falling again. She couldn’t even look at him.

But, she could feel him looking at her. His eyes were too sharp, too bright, as they scanned her face. She could feel him stare at her glassy pink eyes, at the bags underneath them, at her pale skin and quivering lip. She was sure he could see how she was melting into the ground like the poison he so accurately described. When he opened his mouth to speak again, she turned away.

“Please leave me alone.”

She hiked her backpack up on her shoulders as she walked into the Route 9 tunnel. It was like whatever was oozing out of her left a trail to him. Every fiber of her body was pulling back to him, longing to turn around, aching to turn around and run to Spikemuth, to run and tell him what happened to Pip, what she did, and to have him hold her against him and tell her everything would be okay. 

But he wouldn’t.

It was like whatever sludge she was curled around his ankles the farther she stepped, as if longing for him to scoop it up, to help her pull herself back together, all the while smiling that soft smile that was so rare, and seemingly just for her. If he curled his arms around her, rested his head on top of hers, perhaps she would finally be pulled out of the sludge she kept seeping into. She wanted him to stand a hair too close, just as he always had. She wanted to watch as his eyes flit about her face as she talked with him about anything, about nothing. She wanted to let him call her a Feebas or have him let her call him a twit. She wanted to let him sling his arm around her so casually as they walked and enthused about Pokémon battles or Wooloo wool.

But she shouldn’t.

It was mind against matter as she crushed the aching in her heart. She needed to think about anything else. Anything else. About the tunnel. About the water. About the grass or the bushes beside her. About the rocks her shoes scratched against. About heated tiles that were warm beneath her feet. About the flickering of the torches. About the twinkling of the fairy lights that hung around the pillars. About the steam of the bath. About how their breath wafted around them in the dark of the night.

Because maybe if she thought about those things instead, she wouldn’t want to turn around. She thought about how he said he would keep her safe. She thought about how he said he was going to be there for her.

But he wasn’t.

He was preoccupied. He was too busy with that other girl. He would have talked with any other person that wasn’t her, he would have spent time with any other girl but her. That was probably what he did. He probably spent the night with that beautiful girl. They were laughing and looking at each other and holding hands and talking about everything and nothing, about Pokémon battles and Wooloo wool. He probably curled his arms around her, probably rested his head on top of hers. Of course he was looking at that other girl, she was so much more beautiful than Dolly was. He thought Dolly was ugly. He had never called her beautiful before, because she wasn’t. He had called her a Feebas a thousand times because that was what she looked like. She was the perfect comparison to the ugliest Pokémon in the world. She was ugly and scrawny and scarred and- 

She felt a buzz from her pocket. When Dolly read the text, she froze.

 _Hey_ _beautiful_

_Been thinking about you a lot_

Another chat bubble appeared.

_You close to Hammerlocke? Care to see your favorite Gym Leader?_

Dolly stared at her phone in her hands. 

...Beautiful?

~~

Dolly glared at her reflection in the mirror. Perhaps she could blink away that glassy sheen of her eyes. She had asked Rouge to do her makeup for her again, although she didn’t tell her why. When she asked Rouge how she looked, her Weavile had let out a sigh and said ‘sad, but with makeup on.’

She was showered, at least, and her hair smelled like the flowery shampoo the Hammerlocke hotel provided. The warm water perked her up a bit, too, though she still had to focus on walking so she didn’t run into things. The bags under her eyes were concealed, though she could still see the dark rings if she squinted. She heaved out a sigh, blinking back the tears and the looming headache as she tore her eyes from the mirror. She gathered her things and made her way down to the hotel lobby. As she stepped across the tiles, she overheard her name, and glanced to its source.

“And what about Challenger Dolly? Any opinions on her?”

Two tinny voices spoke from a lobby television. Dolly took a seat in one of the chairs as her picture appeared on the side of the screen between the two talk show hosts. Although Dolly had vowed not to watch any of these rubbish shows and interviews about her, her curiosity seemed to always get the best of her.

“Well, she is certainly catching the attention of much of Galar,” a woman said. She was sitting on a bright red couch, and the over-saturated settings of the television burned Dolly’s eyes. “She is the most high-risk, high-reward Challenger to root for. She’s got a strong team, so it’s easy to root for her in that sense, but-”

“But that Nuzlocke Curse, huh?” the male beside her continued. He wore a bright red suit jacket, which also made Dolly’s eyes hurt. He almost blended into the couch behind him.

“Exactly that,” the woman continued. “A little embarrassing to see your favorite Gym Challenger kill one of her Pokémon after you enthuse about how great she is,”

Dolly’s face curled in disgust. 

“She’s controversial,” the man continued. “But that’s what makes it so fun to follow her around, right?”

They both laughed a plastic laugh.

“After losing a Pokémon to Piers, she’s up to face Gym Leader Raihan soon.”

Suddenly the woman tittered again. 

“Now, talk about controversy! Poke-media was blowing up when our studly Dragon Gym Leader posted a pic of the two of them last night at Circhester’s Hero’s Bath festival,”

“The water wasn’t the only thing that was steamy,” the man laughed. Suddenly her and Raihan’s picture replaced the one on the screen. “There certainly weren’t any Gym Challenge uniforms in this picture, huh?”

“I’ll say, a Leader and a Challenger? That just screams scandal. Die-hard Raihan fans weren’t too happy about it, many of them asking ‘how much more attention does this Challenger need?’”

“And also asking, are her battles what they look like, or is Challenger 052 finding _other_ ways to get her Badges?”

Suddenly a video clip started to play. There she was on the oversaturated screen, flipping her hair, batting her eyelashes, pawing at Raihan. She watched Raihan lean in and her heart kicked. Is that really what they looked like? She really did seem so small compared to him. She watched as Raihan lifted her up onto his lap. As soon as he trailed his fingers up her thigh, the shot froze, zoomed in, and the host waved at her face with her hand. 

“I don’t know how Dolly was able to keep her composure like that, looks like our Gym Leader Raihan wants a taste! Let’s hear what our viewers have to say.”

Dolly squinted her eyes as the camera panned to the talk-show audience and a woman who was standing with her hand on her hip. The tinny sound of the television crinkled in Dolly’s ears when the woman snapped her gum on the screen.

“Like, yah I was mad when I saw that video, I mean look at her, crawling all over him like that! She’s got like, no shame.”

The camera flipped back to the two hosts.

“You’ve got to admit, they look good together though, huh?” the man grinned. 

Something tightened low in her stomach as she looked at the two of them on the screen.

“Yeah see I just want to know when she’ll drop out, I mean why hasn’t she been disqualified?” the audience member continued. “If she keeps up her streak of losing one Pokémon per Gym Leader this will be number fou-”

Dolly stood with a huff. Rubbish talk shows, they don’t know anything anyway, besides where to get bad lip injections. She wasn’t cheating her way through the Gym Challenge. Disgust and shame curled in her throat for not realizing there was probably someone recording her and Raihan that night. She was a magnet for scandal and media attention, she should have known better. Idiot.

She stepped out of the lobby, shaking her head as if to shake out the image of that video. Ever since Raihan touched her, it was getting harder to ignore the thoughts of him and the memories on her skin, on her back, on her legs. Even watching that video of the two of them was making it harder to quell the desire for his fingers to trail up her thigh like that again.

The sun warmed the streets of Hammerlocke, glinting over the pedestrians bustling about. It even blazed over Dolly, though she wished it weren’t. The bright light made her head hurt. As she stepped down the street, Dolly tried to think about anything else, but it was becoming harder and harder to deflect the thoughts of Raihan’s touch; his fingers grazing up her spine, trailing up her thigh, his lips so close to her ear when he would whisper to her. They clung to her as if he were a spider web she walked through. She tried shaking him off as much as she could, but every once in a while, she still felt a tingling on her skin.

She needed a distraction, and she was still early anyway. Perhaps she could talk with Hudson, Theodore, and Rouge about their upcoming battle tactics, since they would be the main trio for her battle against Raihan. When she reached the park, she tossed out her three partners. As soon as she did, they gazed at her with worried eyes.

“Have you not yet slept, my Lady?” Theodore sighed. “You said you would after you bested Gym Leader Piers, then you said you would after we said our final goodbyes to Pip, then you said you would when we got to the hotel. And here we are.”

Dolly bit her lip and scuffed at the ground with her shoe.

“I took a shower and that helped a little.”

“That’s not the same, Dolly,” Hudson sighed. “What’s going on? You haven’t been yourself lately.”

“Nothing, I’m fine guys, really.”

“You keep saying that, and yet nothing seems fine,” Hudson said. “Are you still upset about Sap? I told you she loved you more than anything, she said you always knew what she needed even if you listened to her differently than I did,”

Dolly heaved out a sigh and held her head in her hands. Her mascara was already smearing on her palms. 

“Dolly,” Rouge started. “You almost killed me.”

“Don’t make her feel worse, Rouge,” Hudson said.

“No, she needs to hear it,” Rouge continued. “That Scrafty was a maniac, and it's one attack almost killed me. Since it wasn’t me, it was Pip. I’m not battling anything, and I’m not letting anyone else battle anything, until you sleep.”

“Are you going to leave?” Dolly asked quietly. “You’re all going to leave me, aren’t you? You all think I’m poison too, don’t you?”

Rouge sighed and rubbed over her face.

“That’s not what I said, Dolly. I said none of us are battling until you’re in a coherent state of mind. You’re normally a clever girl, and an excellent Trainer, but Hudson’s right. You’re not yourself lately, and you’re not making good choices.”

Rouge’s gaze flicked behind Dolly. Theodore’s feathers started to ruffle, and Dolly turned.

“Hey Dolly,” Raihan grinned as the sun shone behind his head.

Immediately her heart fluttered as she tripped to face him fully. 

“Hi Raihan,” she said feebly.

“You look beautiful, as always.”

“Who the hell is this guy?” Rouge spat.

“He’s... a friend.”

“Not sure I like how he’s looking at you,” Hudson said as he took a step forward.

“Nor I,” Theodore agreed, ruffling his feathers. “We Corviknight oft have keen insight to the intent of men and he-”

“We’re friends,” Dolly laughed nervously.

Her eyes flitted to Raihan’s, hoping he wouldn’t understand what their conversation was about. Her mind kept flashing to his hands, to his lips, and all of it was quickly becoming confusing. She felt nervous with him there, but she also didn’t want him to leave.

“No, you’re friends with Sonia, or Leon, or really anyone that isn’t this guy. Go hang out with one of them,” Hudson said, moving around Dolly so he was standing between her and Raihan.

“Your Mudsdale doesn’t like me, does he?” Raihan said as he stared back into Hudson’s eyes. 

“Oh, he’s just a little protective is all,” she laughed nervously as she tried to clamber between the bodies of her two largest Pokémon. Without much luck, however, as Theodore swooped his wing out and pulled her back.

“I can’t blame him. After looking how you did last night at the festival you’ve probably got men all over you,” Raihan said. He took a step forward and leaned his head towards hers. “I certainly know _I_ was thinking about you all night.”

Dolly’s cheeks burned as he bit his lip. Rouge’s jaw dropped, Hudson stomped toward him, and Theodore puffed up his feathers.

“Dolly, you can’t be serious?!” Rouge asked incredulously.

“He’s a skirt chaser!” Theodore cawed. “A philanderer! A-”

Dolly scrambled to return them to their Poké Balls as Theodore let out another frustrated caw. She tucked a hair behind her ear and shoved down the guilt that was already bubbling in her throat. She let out a nervous laugh. 

“Sorry about them,”

“I’m mainly curious to see you so red,” Raihan shrugged. “So, you ready? I’ve already got a good spot picked out for us, cute coffee shop that you’d look great in.”

She nodded and fell into step with him as they started down the road.

It didn’t take long before they made it to the coffee shop storefront, and Dolly continuously pushed away the images of her Pokémon’s faces. Raihan held the door for her as the sweet smell of whipped cream and chocolate wafted through the air. She waited patiently as a few fans of Raihan’s squealed and asked for pictures, turned away when they glared at her, and she let her eyes close for just a few seconds. Raihan had to call her name twice before her eyes shot open. 

As they finally stepped in line, Dolly peered over the menu. Her mind flashed to the last time she was in a little restaurant, then she vaguely wondered what someone else may have ordered from this menu - probably something ridiculously sweet, and he wouldn’t be able to finish it all. He’d save the cherry for her, but she would try to refuse since he loved cherries, but he would give it back because she loved cherries too. Dolly shook the thought out of her head. She then tried to ask - as discreetly as she could - what type of coffee tasted the most like chocolate milk, and Raihan said she could just, like, get chocolate milk. Then he said it was adorable that she liked chocolate milk. He looked at her and said he liked hot chocolate - he liked licking off the whipped cream.

They took their seats and eased into conversation again, and Dolly was continuously attempting to hold back the yawns that kept threatening to escape. Thankfully, Raihan was a natural conversationalist, so it wasn’t challenging to keep her interested. And, those bright blue eyes and handsome face certainly helped, too. When he teased her again about her drink preferences, they chatted a bit more about food they liked. Turned out, Raihan loved cooking, and was often eager to learn new recipes. Even throughout discussing some of her curry mishaps, Dolly thought back to when she tried to make curry in the Glimwood Tangle. Then, she thought about how comfortable she was that night, and what easy sleep she had in that forest, and again, she shook the memory of his smile out of her head. She bit back a yawn, they finished their drinks, chatted for a bit longer, then headed back out into the bright sunshine of Hammerlocke.

“Yep, I was right,” Raihan said as he casually strolled forward.

“Hm?”

“You did look great in that coffee shop.”

Dolly laughed and rolled her eyes, but she winced when the sun shot into them. She rubbed at her temple as they continued down the street. After a moment she turned again.

“But, um, thank you for this, Raihan.”

He grinned and waved a hand at her.

“Taking a beautiful girl out? I should be thanking you.”

Dolly paused as the word repeated in her mind. She bit her lip, fiddled with the zipper on her jacket, then hesitantly met his eye.

“And I was… I was wondering. Do you, um… want to come to my hotel with me?”

Raihan raised an eyebrow.

“I-I mean I’ve got a book of recipes I keep, if you’d like to see them,” she said. “You said you liked cooking.”

“I think I would like nothing more,” Raihan said.

They made their way through Hammerlocke, and the tension was rising in her shoulders as Raihan walked beside her. She glanced at his hands hanging loosely beside him, and her mind flashed back to how her body shivered when his fingers trailed over her in Circhester. She shook the thought from her head as she watched a dog walker ahead of them struggle to keep his rambunctious Yampers settled. They bounded around playfully, about ten of them tugging at their leashes.

“That guy’s awfully ambitious,” Dolly laughed, pointing Raihan to the man tugging at all of his leashes. Raihan laughed too as he locked his hands behind his head. 

“I’ve seen that guy around before, normally he does a pretty good job keeping them all under control - maybe it’s the weather or something that’s making them so crazy today.”

As if on cue, the Yampers looked their way, and Dolly made eye contact with a few of them.

“Um, hi.”

Suddenly they froze, then in one mass all bounded to her, twenty little legs scampering at her full speed.

“Hey! Hey what’s your name?!” one asked as it jumped up at her legs.

“You wanna play?”

“Yeah, yeah! Play with us!”

“You smell like sunshine!”

“Pet me, hey not them, pet me!”

The Yampers bounded around her, tangling her legs in their leashes. She did her best to abide by their requests, but their consistent yapping was quickly becoming overwhelming. Their barking shot into her ears and made her headache throb.

“Sorry, sorry!” the dog walker called as he tried to arrange the Yampers. “They’re normally much better behaved!”

“No, you’re fine!” she said, trying to push away the Yampers that were jumping at her. He tugged on one of the leashes that was wrapped around her ankle and Dolly tripped backwards.

She expected to fall onto the hard ground, or onto a group of Yampers, but Raihan quickly moved forward and caught her under her arms. He swiftly scooped her up as she kicked the leashes off her legs.

“Got them all settled?” Raihan asked the dog walker. He nodded apologetically and tugged the Yampers away from the two. Raihan looked to Dolly, and his bright blue eyes pierced into hers as he grinned toothily. “They certainly wanted to pay you a bit of attention, hm, Challenger Dolly?”

“I can’t blame them,” she joked, tossing her hair behind her. 

“I’ll say,” Raihan said gravelly. As his voice rumbled against her, Dolly was more acutely aware of his hands wrapped around her. He started walking again down the street.

“H-hey, you know you can put me down anytime,” she stuttered as her legs dangled when they walked through the town. She had to clutch at his shoulders to keep her balance.

“Nah, we can get to the hotel much faster if I don’t have to wait for your little legs to catch up,”

“Look I know I’m not _that_ short, you’re just a billion feet tall,” she mumbled. She glanced around, and saw a few pedestrians chuckling as they watched their Gym Leader carry Dolly through the streets of Hammerlocke. “Raihan, people are staring,”

“I can’t blame them,” he said as he flashed his crooked grin.

“Cut it out,” she grumbled as the heat flared in her cheeks.

“Your face is pretty red there, Dolly,” he laughed. Then, his voice quieted. “Does being this close to me make you nervous?”

“N-no,” she lied. “It’s just a little overwhelming to be manhandled in public.”

His eyelids lowered as he adjusted her in his arms. 

“Would you rather it be in private?” he purred.

Dolly’s eyes widened at the implication of his question. When he was holding her like that, looking at her like that, did she even want to say no? He probably didn’t mean it like that anyway, right?

Right...?

“Um...”

“Oh alright, I’ll put you down,” he said as he lightly set her on her feet. She brushed off her skirt. 

They made it back to Dolly’s hotel and the tension knotted into her back the entire walk there. It seeped into the rest of her body as Raihan stepped into her room behind her. Well, she supposed he wouldn’t just wait in the lobby for her or anything, that’d be kind of weird, right? 

Her train of thought broke when she heard the click of the lock. 

Perhaps he often had fans trailing him who would burst into his hotel rooms. That must be it. Her heart was beating harder as she met his eyes. She swallowed past the knot in her throat and made her way towards her bag. She pulled out her recipe journal she was keeping from traveling, and Raihan stood beside her with a smile.

Dolly began to relax as she flipped through the pages, pointing out the different flavors and ingredients she liked to use. Raihan offered recommendations for future ingredient combinations, though it was getting a little challenging to focus, as he kept inching toward her every time she flipped a page. Every so often his hand would graze over hers, and her heart rate would spike again.

She flipped the page again, then mentioned how whenever she tried to eat anything in the Dusty Bowl in the Wild Area, everything just tasted like sand. That led them to a discussion on Raihan’s battle tactics and what spurred his fondness for manipulating the weather. That tactic was clever and distracting, just as Raihan was, especially when he peeled off his sweatshirt. He grinned when her eyes widened, watching as her gaze lingered an extra second.

“W-well, all this talking about sand has made me thirsty,” she joked as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. 

She stepped into the bathroom and filled up one of the paper cups the hotel provided. She double-checked her appearance in the mirror, brushed down her shirt, and combed through her hair with her fingers. Her makeup was still intact, though the bags under her eyes were more significant. She wondered if Raihan noticed. He hadn’t commented on that yet, or how she kept trying not to yawn. She stepped back into the main room and over to the nightstand.

Raihan was still flipping through the pages of her book, though now, a few buttons of his shirt were undone. Was he hot? She supposed it was a little hot in there. Something was different in the way he was looking at her, and his previous crooked grin was gone. She tried to avert her eyes from his arms, from his chest peeking through those undone buttons, and tried to shake the image out and not let it burn into her imagination for later. The room was dimmer, as now only the bedside lamp was on. Seemed like he drew the curtains closed, too. Perhaps that was common to do when one left Hammerlocke hotels...?

“So earlier, you said you didn’t want to be ‘manhandled’ in public,” Raihan said quietly as he turned and walked towards her.

That was probably a pretty common preference.

“Um, yeah, I guess so,” Dolly muttered. 

She tried to look into his eyes when he spoke, but they were drawn to his chest, drawn to his arms, drawn to his lips as he stopped only inches away. 

He stepped forward, Dolly stepped back, and the back of her legs pushed against the covers of the bed. The soft fabric beneath her seemed too delicate for how his bright blue eyes pierced into hers, it seemed to gentle for how hard her heart was beating when Raihan set one of his knees beside her hip. Her pulse was beating wildly at his proximity, as his scent and features and gaze overwhelmed her senses when he set his hands on either side of her. 

“Is this better?” he whispered. “No one around now.”

Dolly stared at him wide-eyed as he slowly undid the rest of the buttons on his shirt. She swallowed hard as her eyes devoured every inch of his chiseled bare torso when he shook his shirt off completely. He reached forward and unzipped her jacket, slid it off her shoulders, and tossed it to the floor. She didn’t really mind - it was getting a little hot in there.

That heat seemed to magnify as darkness enfolded the room when he flicked off the final light. Raihan looked down at her again and it was like his eyes were almost glowing in the dark of the room. He leaned forward slowly, Dolly leaned back, and settled into the middle of the bed. He never once broke eye contact, and her gaze was latched to his as he crawled over her.

His body took up almost all of her line of vision as he reached and took her hands in his. Her fingers trembled when he pinned her wrists onto the sheets above her head with his one hand, but she would be lying if she said she didn’t like the way he was looking at her, lying if she said she hadn’t been attracted to him since the moment she saw him.

“I’ve been waiting for this for so long, especially since seeing you like that last night in the Hero’s Bath,” he growled as he leaned in. “Acting like that, wearing next to nothing…” 

Her breath hitched when he bit her collarbone.

“Didn’t know you were such a tease,” he growled into her skin. “All over me one second…”

He bit a sensitive spot on her neck and her back arched at the pressure, though she was unable to touch him in return as he pinned her hands down.

“...then acting like it never happened the next.”

Her eyes fluttered closed as he smirked against her neck, her hands still trembling under his grip. Her movements were slowed as her eyebrows pulled together, and she could only focus on one thing at a time. She could only focus on how Raihan kissed the marks he left, or how his lips trailed up her throat. Dolly could barely open her eyes as he straddled her hips and pressed her harder into the covers.

...But she couldn’t, she shouldn’t, right? He was a Gym Leader, and she a Gym Challenger. Was it appropriate? She didn’t need any more publicity, that was for certain. 

But that was half of the allure as his tongue slid over her neck, or as he nipped again at her skin. The rebellion, the danger, disobeying the exact warning Hudson, Theodore, and even Leon had all given her to stay away from him - all of it only added to the intensity of how he felt when he pressed against her. 

His body in the dark of the room, craving her, wanting her - she didn’t know what it meant to mess around, but if this was it, she liked it. She liked the tingle of her nerves as his breath hit her. She liked the feeling of his fangs dragging along her skin as he tilted his head to kiss her throat, her neck, under her jaw. She liked the animalistic touch she unconsciously knew he was hungry for since they met. She secretly liked the glances to her hips, to her mouth, every moment they spent together. This entire time she wanted him to want her. She wanted to be the focus of that hunger, that attention, to finally be looked at like she wasn’t an ugly freak whom the whole country hated.

Finally, he pressed his lips against hers, and Dolly felt those cravings as he kissed her. She tried to kiss him just as hard, tried to feel that desire she so longed for. He drew out a groan from her when he playfully bit her lip, and his fangs poked into her sensitive skin. He grinned against her mouth, and then did it again.

He was rough, but she didn’t mind. Her heart beat faster as his other hand carefully slid under her shirt, just enough to make her gasp. Raihan grinned, and his hand continued up to hold her waist. His constant comments, his relentless flirting; she could feel it in his fingers when they pressed into her waist as he kissed her harder. When they finally broke apart her breath was coming out in short, ragged huffs.

Maybe if he kissed her even harder, she would feel beautiful. Maybe if his hands explored all over, she would feel loved. He kissed her, touched her, released her hands and let her touch him in return. She was searching for it, trying to find it, clutching at his shoulders and in his hair. Her lips and skin were raw, but that something still wasn’t satiated. Raihan grinned toothily as his eyes flickered to hers again. 

Then, she realized they weren’t golden. Long, dark eyelashes didn’t frame his eyes like she expected when she looked up.

No. No, no this wasn’t right. Something about this didn’t feel right.

Her brow furrowed and Raihan paused.

“Raihan… I want to stop.”

This wasn’t as fulfilling as she thought it would be. She thought her insecurities would melt away, pushed out by the pressure of his hands or his kiss. But they weren’t. They still sat in her skin. She even felt dirtier for using him for it. Raihan sat up and heaved out a sigh.

“Not fun if you don’t want it too,” he muttered.

Dolly took in a breath as Raihan opened the curtains again, flicked on the light, and her heart was still beating in her ears.

Then, she let out a sigh of relief. No, this wasn’t as fulfilling as she thought it would be. She thought she would feel loved, she thought she would feel safe. But she didn’t. She just felt like she was kissing an attractive man whom none of her friends trusted.

That little bit of resistance, that little bit of self-care, that quiet ‘no’: all of those helped that little bit of self-love blossom an inch higher.

Dolly squeezed her eyes closed when the lights flicked on. She was grateful for his self-control, no matter how begrudging. Although he teased her for her size, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to get away had he been someone less noble. Leon was right about everything - Raihan was a good man, if not a little salacious. Leave it to pseudo-older brothers to know everything...

She wanted to not be alone with Raihan as quickly as possible, as the tension in the air was thick. Perhaps she could let a bit of it out into the hallway. Dolly struggled to untangle herself from the covers and stumbled to the door. When she opened it, she stopped in her tracks.

His fist was raised for a knock, and she stared into his red and puffy eyes for another second.

“Dolls,” he finally breathed out. “You’re actually here. Look, I know you told me to leave you alone, but I really need to talk to you, please, just one minute. Everything I said, I’m so -”

Suddenly she felt Raihan standing behind her. He lifted his arm above her head to rest on the door jam.

“Hey, Leon’s little brother.”

He froze. Then, his eyes flitted from Dolly’s flushed face to Raihan’s, to their clothes on the ground behind them. He watched as Raihan wiped his mouth, watched as Dolly adjusted her shirt, then his eyes finally settled on the marks riddling her skin. He let out half a breath as the realization dawned on his face.

And again, something in his eyes broke. 

Dolly’s heart shattered as he tore his eyes from them and turned. Before she could reach out to him, he was gone.


	21. Pecha Berries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Wow wow wow, we're over 100,000 words! How fitting that this milestone comes at the chapter titled Pecha Berries. This is officially the longest thing I have ever written. As always, thank you all so much for reading, and it is invigorating to hear your thoughts and comments! I greatly appreciate you all. Thanks again, happy reading (or disgruntled reading)! - missusk
> 
> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile)

**Chapter 21 - Pecha Berries**

Dolly was standing alone in her Hammerlocke hotel room and she tore her hands through her hair. She had never been a violent person, but her knuckles throbbed from punching that hole in the wall. She probably fractured something, too.

That didn’t matter. She deserved it.

She was pacing back and forth, her thoughts swarming, often infiltrated by the image of that pure despair on his face. It was her fault. She was a monster. But no, he was the one that said such cruel things, but she was the one that left him, she wouldn’t let him talk to her, she wouldn’t let him come back. 

She opened the door, closed it again, and paced around her room. Her mind was shooting back and forth as she simultaneously attacked and defended herself. The ground was fuzzy as she stared at it, and she smeared the tears off her face again. Her head and her hand throbbed, and Dolly tripped over the blankets strewn on the ground.

She wouldn’t let herself lay down. She didn’t deserve to sleep. She was poison.

She needed to throw that Pecha berry charm out the window. She didn’t deserve to wear it.

When Dolly motioned to grab at her necklace, she only scratched her skin.

She froze, then set her hand over her collarbone.

Where was her necklace? 

Her mind flashed to Spikemuth, when Rouge held it out to her. She never put it on, did she? Idiot. 

Dolly didn’t take her bag. She didn’t take her Pokémon. She wouldn’t be long, and it was a straight shot to Spikemuth. She would go, grab it, then come back. Then, maybe, maybe, maybe, she would let herself sleep. Maybe she would talk to Jackson, and maybe he would help her from escalating further. Maybe she would try to rationalize and try to believe that she could somehow possibly be worthy of love.

The blinding sun was starting to set, only paling the sky a tinge. She hated how everyone kept looking at her as she stormed through Hammerlocke, she hated how they were all probably wondering. They might all swarm around her, throw things at her, ask her why she was so terrible. She wouldn’t blame them.

Each step that pounded into the ground pounded behind her eyes. Where was she going? What was she doing? Oh, Spikemuth, necklace, idiot, right. It was as if her sinuses were full - as if everything within her were swollen and ready to burst. Her lips and skin throbbed where Raihan nipped her and she wondered if she was bleeding. Was there any purple sludge gurgling out of her? Were her tears laced with poison as they tapped against the pavement?

There was Spikemuth. There were the crates. Is that where she sat? No, yes… she couldn’t remember. Nothing on it, nothing around it, nothing below it, only dirt and grass and no gold glinting in the setting sun.

The tension was too much, the pressure was unstable, and the dam finally burst.

Dolly coughed a sob as she gently felt over the wood of the crate with shaky fingers. She lost it. She lost her necklace. She lost her charms. She lost her Pokémon. 

His voice echoed.

Dolly’s eyes shot up.

There he was again, talking, laughing, smiling with a group of Gym Challengers as they walked out of Spikemuth together. There was that beautiful girl from the Hero’s Bath festival.

Dolly wasn’t thinking straight as she turned and rushed away. The days without sleep were catching up with her, and every faltering step reminded her how exhausted she was. Her head throbbed and her thoughts rambled, all of them disjointed and cruel. Although it was trying to valiantly fight, that little bud of self-love was being overshadowed by the habitual pattern of negativity she was so accustomed to.

Eyelids, path, darkness, path, darkness again. Tunnel? Where was she? The tunnel, right, to Spikemuth, no, wait, to him. _No._

Dolly clung to the railing of the tunnel as she tripped again. Her eyes kept closing, her vision kept blurring, as she tried to force herself to continue. The world was jostling, jolting, and she stumbled again, ignoring as he called her name. It was probably just in her head, anyway, he didn’t care about her.

Dolly’s thoughts jostled just as the ground did and tremors shook the earth as she heard screams coming from the tunnel leading back to Hammerlocke. She had to catch herself on the railing again as rubble fell from the ceiling of the tunnel. Was she imagining that? She followed the cries to see a crowd forming at the mouth of the tunnel, and she tugged on the sleeve of a construction worker.

“What’s going on?” Dolly asked.

“You better get out of here, kid,” the construction worker said. “Wild Pokémon are Dynamaxing everywhere!”

Dynamax? Was she in the Wild Area? No, this was the tunnel to Hammerlocke...

The sun shot into her eyes as Dolly emerged from the tunnel, and the light flickered as a Dynamaxed Perrserker tore trees from the ground on Route 7. Its shadow blocked out the sun as it turned to stare at her.

Dynamax Perrserker. Dark-type? No… Steel-type. Weak against Fire-type. Cinderace. Save the people in the tunnel. Go. Now. Don’t be useless.

Dolly sprinted to the middle of the bridge and reached for her bag, only to grasp at empty space. 

Where...?

Hotel.

_Hotel._

Idiot.

The cacophony of sound ripped against her ears as the Perrserker wrenched another tree from the ground. Dirt and twigs tore into her skin as the trunk hurdled towards her, past her, then over the side of the bridge. Screams were echoing through the air, tearing into her, as the Perrserker locked eyes with her. The world shook when it stepped onto the bridge and shook again when it took another step towards her.

Her legs were frozen, everything was frozen, as the Perrserker took a final step toward her. Its claws glistened in the sun. In one solid swipe, it knocked her to the side and her head hit the stone, then her body slipped under the railing.

Darkness again.

No… what was that? Mist? 

“Hello?”

Her voice didn’t even echo.

“Hello?” she called again. 

Dolly glanced around. Everything looked the same in this darkness, the only movement was her breath swirling the mist around, or when she tried to push it out of her line of vision. It thickened when she took a step, and thickened again when a voice rumbled around her.

“You will save the region and break the Curse.” 

It reverberated through the air, as if it were contained in every particle of the mist. She whipped around, only to watch the mist swirl again.

“What? Where are you?” she called. She wasn’t even sure where to turn. “Show yourself!”

“Do not lose heart, Shield of Galar,” the voice said again. “Trust yourself, trust your Pokémon, and prepare yourself for the hurdles ahead.”

The mist was growing stronger, the white swirling around her.

“What do you mean? Who are you?” she called again. Her voice sounded muffled as the mist swirled thicker still.

Then, the mist thickened until she only saw white, and her ears were starting to ring. She could feel her hair whipping around. What was that ringing noise? It wasn’t that voice… Did mist make noise? She felt like she was falling. 

No, that couldn’t be right. Even when she opened her eyes, she still saw white. Then, the air was knocked out of her and her body lurched upward. It was getting hard to breathe.

“...ank yo...rizard…”

The wind wasn’t whipping at her as intensely anymore. Hardly at all, now, as she felt something beneath her. It was still hard to breathe.

“...ee, get a doct…”

What was that? Dolly’s thoughts swirled, and she could only focus on trying to breathe. Was she finally melding into the earth? Did she finally ooze beneath the ground? It was warm, soft, sturdy.

Shield of Galar… save the region… that part was new. It said to trust her Pokémon again, so maybe she hadn’t imagined it in the Slumbering Weald. Or perhaps she was hallucinating?

Somebody was saying something, but the voice wasn’t clear. She wished it would stop, she was so, so tired. She leaned further into the soft warmth. 

The noise started again. She could faintly pick out a few syllables. Well, no, just one syllable, over and over. Was it that voice that told her to save Galar? No, this one sounded different… The sound broke through.

“Dolls.” 

Were there dolls around here? No, there wasn’t anything here... Whoever wanted dolls would have to look somewhere else. She felt her body rock.

“Dolls,” the voice called again. “C’mon Dolls, please, please wake up,”

Whoever this person was, they sounded pretty worried. She hoped they would find a doll soon. She could relate, though, to being so worried. She had a favorite stuffed animal when she was younger.

“ _Please._ ”

Something wet tapped her face, then something else brushed her cheek. She had felt something like that before. A faint memory brushed through her mind as soft as this something. Everything around her was shifting, though she couldn’t move along with it. Something brushed her face again, and Dolly’s eyes fluttered open.

“Hop...?” she whispered hoarsely. 

He quickly curled his arms around her and pulled her into him.

“You’re alive,” came his voice from by her ear. “You’re actually alive.”

His voice cracked against her ear when he let out a sob. Hop was shaking as his hand curled into her hair, and he was pulling her against him with everything he had. Soft cloth and tears swayed as he wrapped his arms and legs around her until she was flush against him.

Dolly blinked, her mind like television static. His body racked against hers as his tears leaked onto her skin.

“...You’re crying...” Dolly mumbled.

Hop hiccupped, heaved in a breath, and loosened his grip just enough so he could see her face. He was still very much curled around her, holding her head, fingers tangled in her hair.

“I thought you _died_ , of course I’m crying. You nearly got killed by a mad Perrserker, then it swiped you off the edge of the bridge. Lee’s Charizard caught you right before you hit the ground,”

Then, the sob escaped his throat and he pulled her against him again.

“I thought you died, Dolls, you weren’t breathing, and you wouldn’t open your eyes.”

Everything came flooding back. The tremors, the construction worker, the Dynamaxed Perrserker, the world going black, that voice, the feeling of falling. Her head and her shoulder and her hand throbbed, and really, her entire body was sore.

“Hop,” Dolly said weakly. “Please don’t cry,”

“You’re so important to me,” he continued, hiccupping against her ear. “You’re so special to me,”

“...And you’re squeezing me too hard and I can’t breathe,”

Hop flinched and loosened his grip apologetically. She tried to move, just to see if she still could, but when she squirmed Hop held onto her defiantly.

“Take it easy,” Hop said gently, then lowered her down onto his lap. “Please don’t run away, you just almost died, don’t leave me yet. Just another minute, then you can go back to Raihan. You can go back to him and be with him and do whatever you want with him and I won’t say anything, I promise, just… just please, let me have one more minute with you, just one, then I’ll leave you alone forever and never bother you again.”

The tears were falling freely from his eyes, and he wasn’t even trying to stop them. Though she couldn’t move much of her body, Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together. She slowly reached a hand to his face, and gently broke the stream of tears with her thumb. He sniffled and caught her hand, and wove his fingers around hers. He swallowed another sob and pressed her hand against his cheek.

“You’re safe now, don’t go, just one minute. Lee took care of that Perrserker in a flash, see?” he said, setting her hand down to show her the article on his phone. “He ran off to get a doctor for you, or a healing Pokémon, whichever he ran into first. So just, just wait until after that, and then I’ll leave you alone.”

Dolly nodded weakly and Hop sighed.

“He probably wasn’t the best person to send, now that I think about it,” Hop continued as he glanced behind him. “He’ll probably make it to Jhoto by accident first. I would have gone but I followed you into the tunnel to see if you were okay, then you almost died and once Charizard brought you back up I… I couldn’t leave you.” 

As he said, this, Hop brought his hand to her face again, and brushed his thumb over her cheek. The feeling was familiar, just as it was when she could see nothing but black. It was like his touch had grounded her yet again and Hop gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The movement was almost instinctive, as after a beat it seemed like Hop realized what he had done. He jerked his hand back apologetically. 

“Look, I know we’re supposed to be mad at each other but that’s rubbish,” he started. “When I saw you get hit, then fall off the side of the bridge, I couldn’t just rush off. You’re my best mate, Dolls, alongside my greatest rival. I shouldn’t have said any of that in Circhester, and I feel terrible. Really, you’re like, one of the best people in the world.”

Dolly breathed out a laugh. As soon as she smiled, Hop smiled too, and a few more tears tumbled out of his eyes. 

“You have a team of Pokémon who would do literally anything for you,” he said as he reached down, took her hand, and pressed it to his chest. His heart thrummed beneath her fingers. “And you have a mate here that would do the same. That’s why I had to come after you, even after all that with Raihan. You just looked so tired and so worn out. I thought that if I… if I could just help, just take some of that pressure off of you, then you wouldn’t look so defeated. When I was coming out of Spikemuth, it just shot through my head that I needed to do whatever I could to see you smile again. I’m so sorry for what I said, and I hope you can forgive me.”

She nodded, and Hop curled his fingers around hers.

“What I said about you and poison was rubbish," he continued. "What I really meant was that you... affect people. You’ve made... people... a-and Pokémon fall in love with you because of who you are, because you’re gentle, and you accept anyone and everyone.”

“Oh,” she said quietly. “...Really?”

He nodded, and Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together.

...Perhaps she wasn’t so terrible after all. 

“Really really. You’re my best mate, truly, and I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you and the last thing I said to you was something dumb.”

“That’s pretty likely though,” Dolly said softly as the corners of her mouth twitched up.

Hop grinned too and rolled his eyes.

“Guess you’re feeling fine now. Here I am opening my heart up, and you go and tease me like that? Brutal…” he said. “I’m really sorry for saying all of that, Dolls, I’m a real arse...”

“Yeah.” 

Hop smiled, then his brow furrowed. 

“I swear I’ll make it up to you. I’ll be the best mate there ever was and I would rather die than see you cry again.”

“That’s… a little dramatic,” Dolly said as she breathed out a laugh. “I cry a lot.”

“Hm. Yeah, you’re right,” Hop said as he scratched his chin. “But I mean it, I’ll work as hard as I have to so you’ll forgive me, I swear it.”

Instead of a response, Dolly struggled to sit up, then she curled her arms around him. The sunset cloaked the bridge, the wind whispered through their hair, and Hop heaved out a sigh. His body melded against hers, and Dolly’s eyes fluttered closed when she rested her cheek on his shoulder.

“Of course I forgive you,” she said quietly. “I just hope you can forgive me too for all the stuff I said.”

She felt him nod, and Dolly pulled back to look in his eyes.

“What I said wasn’t even true, anyway,” she continued. “You’re one of the best people I know. Even though I can speak to Pokémon, most of the time you’re better at identifying what’s going on than I am. I’ve never met somebody who has that skill like you do, Hop, not even Leon.”

She paused. Her thoughts were rambling, and there wasn’t much of a filter to stop her words.

“And on that too,” she said as her brow furrowed. "You’re amazing because you’re you, Hop! Not because you’re related to some other bloke. What Bede said was all rubbish, anyway, and what I said was rubbish too. Sure, Leon’s been the Champion for years now, but who cares? Your Pokémon love you because you’re you! Everyone loves you! You’re kind, you’re fun, and you care about people and Pokémon more deeply than anyone I’ve ever seen!” 

“Dolls, be careful,” Hop said, though he couldn’t hold back the small smile that was blooming. “Don’t get too worked up.”

She tried to sit up, only to stumble into Hop again. She started counting on her fingers in exasperation. 

“You’re authentic, you’re encouraging, you’re honest, you’re motivated,” she continued. “You know how to make people smile, no matter what it takes. You don’t change who you are just because of something someone said. You’re worth looking at, looking up to,” 

She smiled, looking up into his eyes as her voice quieted.

“You inspire me, Hop, you always have. You’re the reason why I started this adventure, and I wouldn’t want it to be with anyone else. You’re my best friend, you’re so special to me, and I need you in my life.” 

The intensity in Hop’s eyes suddenly made Dolly a little dizzy. But perhaps that was just because she almost died and hadn’t slept for two days... Dolly looked down and bit her lip as a warmth spread over her cheeks. She fiddled with her thumbs, but when Hop wasn’t responding she dared to look back up.

His mouth was hanging open like a Victreebell. He scratched his head, opened his mouth again, closed it, opened it, and closed it a few times before letting out a ‘huh.’ And then, it was Dolly’s turn to gape in shock. 

“No way. After all these years of knowing you, this is the first time you have _ever_ been speechless. Is that all it took? A compliment or two?”

“N-no!” Hop said as his cheeks tinged pink. “That was probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me, is all.”

“Well you were talking about how great I was,” Dolly muttered as her eyes flicked to the ground.

Hop seemed to be sitting a little taller than he was a few minutes ago, and something fluttered in her stomach as she saw him smile. He pulled her into another hug, and after a rejuvenating ten seconds, Hop muttered against her ear.

“I forgive you, Dolls,” Hop said. “Thanks for saying sorry.”

Dolly nodded and let her eyes close. She yawned again, and her body melted against his with ease. Hop was... awfully comfortable… 

“But, um,” Hop continued. “I… that’s all I wanted to say. You can go back to Raihan, now, if you want. I won’t say anything to you or him.”

When Hop tried to hide his sniffle, Dolly muttered against his ear.

“Oh, I’m not going back to Raihan.”

Hop had to pull her up to look in her eyes.

“What?”

“I don’t want to be with him, and nothing even happened,” Dolly shrugged. “We kissed, yeah, but he wasn’t even that good at it.”

“Really?” he asked softly.

Dolly nodded.

“Yeah. He kept biting at me and I think he thought it was sexy but really it was kind of annoying and-”

“No,” Hop interrupted, squeezing his eyes closed and shaking the image out of his head. “I mean, you don’t want to be with him?”

“Oh,” Dolly replied, breathing out a laugh. “No, I don’t. I told him to stop.”

Hop’s eyebrows pulled together.

“But… why? After all that in Circhester… and then him in your room I thought...”

Dolly looked to the side, mulling it over in her head. It certainly was confusing.

She wanted Raihan, but she also didn’t want Raihan. He made her feel wanted, but he didn’t make her feel loved. It was all so confusing too because Dolly certainly didn’t expect her heart to shatter into a thousand pieces when Hop looked at her so brokenly in the hotel doorway. Even just remembering it made her feel sick to her stomach. How could she be so stupid?

Well, no, she wasn’t stupid. She was a girl who liked Raihan, liked what they were doing, until she didn’t. Then, she so vehemently didn’t want it she couldn’t wait to be out of the room with him. Raihan didn’t alleviate that insecurity, his long-awaited touch didn’t make her feel loved like she thought it would. The entire time she was with him she was nervous, and he didn’t make her feel safe. The danger was fun until she couldn’t control it.

The juxtaposition was blinding as she sat there with Hop. His words and his touch and his honesty made her feel like herself, made her feel empowered. It didn’t matter if the world hated her, because he helped remind her of her friends, of her Pokémon, that all loved her, even when she couldn’t see it.

“When was the last time you slept, Dolls? Are you sleeping with your eyes open?”

Dolly jolted at the sound of Hop’s voice.

“Um, no, sorry Hop. Look, Raihan is charming and dangerous and exciting, sure, but… he doesn’t know me. I’m trying to… I’m trying to learn how to love myself, and he wasn’t helping with that. I finally had the courage to say no, because I wanted to do what was good and healthy for me. I’m trying to care about myself enough now to not need his attention. That was part of it, at least.” 

“What was the other part?” Hop asked.

“You.”

He raised his eyebrows.

It was his smile and his words and his friendship and the fact that she hadn’t stopped thinking about him for a second. Although Dolly had so vehemently pushed that rational out and steeled herself behind the robust filter of her mind, that filter withered like paper mache as her complete exhaustion overpowered every thought.

“I wanted him to want me because this whole country has only ever looked at me like I’m a dirty waste of space,” Dolly continued. “Like a _thing_ instead of a person. It was different, but the bottom line was that… that didn’t really change with Raihan.”

Wingulls were gliding through the air, tossing a few white and blue feathers over the bridge. They glowed in the light of the setting sun, flicking even more colors to add to the pinks and oranges of the sky. Hop breathed out, a small smile twitching up the corners of his mouth. At this, Dolly gently squeezed his hand, hoping to to express with her entire self what she was trying to say.

“Hop, you make me feel safe, and you make me feel supported, and you look at me for who I am. You care about me even though I’m dirty and flawed and cry all the time. So, I’m done with Raihan because… because of you. I'm an actual person and not just a problem that needs resolving, and that’s something that you, my _best friend_ , have helped me learn. And that’s why I left, and that’s why I don’t want to be with him. So… yeah,” she ended with a shrug.

Hop’s smile was almost blinding, and having it so close made Dolly’s heart kick. When she pulled him into another hug, he heaved out a sigh and quickly deflated against her. They sat there, time unimportant, as the Wingulls and sunset drifted around them. Hop hugged her a little closer, and Dolly unintentionally let out a hum. With the sun and him curled around her like that, Dolly couldn’t help but let another yawn escape, and her breathing slowed when he rubbed her back.

“I am so glad you said that,” he said. “Ever since I first saw you two interact, I dunno, it’s just been weird because he always just looked so, like, hungrily which is weird but he’s got that dragon-animal thing going on and I hated how he looked at you like that like some piece of meat-”

Dolly blinked a few times.

“And how he would, ugh, _touch_ you like that and even Lee said he was worried too because he knows how Raihan gets and he noticed the way he was looking at you too and he even mentioned how he could tell it was really bothering me and I know I even said it in Circhester and it’s not like I don’t trust you it’s that I don’t trust other guys or really just Raihan and I just want you to be safe but it’s not like I’m the only one who can provide that for you because you’re perfectly capable I mean obviously look at your Pokémon team and how far you’ve come-”

She leaned back, just enough to see his face and watch Hop fumble through his winding sentence. 

“Hop?”

“-which is honestly really impressive and it was just frustrating seeing that picture Raihan posted of the two of you and then reading all those comments from people who don’t even know you just talking about what you looked like and they didn’t even care that you’re strong and fun and clever and determined and it just made me upset when I thought that Raihan wasn’t appreciating you for you and how hard you worked to get to where you are because he probably just wanted something else from you so that’s what I was thinking when I saw you two in your room together and stuff but now that you’ve said all of that it really makes sense and-”

Hop was still curled around her, holding onto her waist. She smiled and raised an eyebrow.

“Ho-op...”

“-and I know _I’ve_ told you a billion times too but I am really so so so so _so_ proud of you and this entire time I knew you could do it and I’m so glad that you came out with me to do the Gym Challenge and I’ve learned so much from you too and you’ve grown so much and it’s been so ace seeing you love yourself more because you really are so amazing Dolls and inspiring and it just makes me so proud as your best mate and I’ll do whatever I can to help you and-”

She put her hand over his mouth, but he still kept talking, albeit muffled. Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together.

“-mmph pher mphhanph mhammph anph mphour pumph anf phampf mmphh hmmph pherphon phmamph phi muph phomph fphoo pho mumph phanph phi mmphf phomph pho mphour mphammph anph pumph anph mmphh-”

Dolly slid her hand up to cup his face, and lightly pressed her lips against his cheek. 

Hop stopped talking. It took another couple seconds, but he finally looked to see Dolly gazing at him apologetically.

“Sorry, I didn’t know how else to get you to stop talking...”

Hop cleared his throat and his cheeks stained a deep red. 

“Um. Right. Yeah, sorry, that uh, that-” he cleared his throat again. “That happens, um, that happens sometimes.”

She bit her lip to hold back a laugh. 

“Yeah I’ve noticed. Thanks for caring about me, Hop. I’ll be more conscious of your feelings from now on.”

His eyes widened at her sentence, and his hands shot back. She nearly toppled over and grasped at his shoulders to keep from falling.

“N-no, it’s not that I have, not that I have _feelings_ , you know, not like, not like that. I mean, I care about you because you’re my best mate, and, and, of course I care about you, but it’s not because I have, you know, not because I, um, not _those_ , those types of, um, of feelings, because I don’t because, I-I um-”

She kissed his cheek again.

“Right okay done talking.”

After another second, Dolly flopped against him and yawned again. Her hands that were clutching at his shoulders slid down his back, and she nestled her face in the crook of his neck. 

“Seriously, when was the last time you slept?” Hop chuckled when Dolly yawned again. “Is this even comfortable?”

“I ‘unno,” she mumbled. “It kind of makes my back hurt.”

“Come on,” Hop said as he adjusted beneath her. “Let’s get you to bed.”

She grumbled when Hop helped her stand, and he sighed when she flopped against him again. He pushed her off, only to lunge forward when she nearly toppled over. The oranges and pinks were blanketing the bridge, growing bolder as the sun lowered on the horizon, and Dolly let out another yawn. Then she let out another whine when Hop jostled her again.

“Be gentle, Hop, geez,” Dolly huffed. “I’m probably concussed,”

He stiffened, then smiled as he softly shook his head.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Want me to go with you to the doctor?” he asked. “Seeing as Lee probably is in Jhoto by now?”

That familiar heat rose to her face as he tucked another strand of hair behind her ear. That motion seemed almost second nature to him at this point.

“I’m okay. I’ll probably be like, super sore tomorrow, though,” she sighed.

“Yeah, you always bruised pretty easily… like a little berry.”

Well alright, now that was just embarrassing. She scrunched up her face and Hop grinned. 

“Yep. That’s what you are,” he continued. “You’re a little Pecha berry, small and pink and trying her best to heal those around her.”

“Hop...” she grumbled. “Can’t I be something cool? Like a Tyranitar or something?”

“Nope. You’re a little pink Pecha berry.” 

She sighed, and slumped against him again. He was just… so comfortable...

“You must be tired, I’ve never gotten so many hugs in one day,” he said softly. He held her head against his chest as he lightly swayed them back and forth. “I suppose we do have to make up for all of that time.” 

“Hop, it wasn’t even a day,” Dolly laughed into his shirt.

“Shh, little pink Pecha berry,” he hummed. He pulled her closer, and tangled his fingers into her hair again.

That little bit of self-love that was dwelling in the bottom of her heart grew another inch. Hop held onto her, again protecting her from the rest of the world. Dolly let out another sigh despite herself, and her eyes fluttered closed. A little pink Pecha berry, huh? Leave it to Hop to say something so endearing and stupid at the same time. 

“I missed you,” she breathed.

Even when they were apart, she had the security in knowing he would be there for her, wherever they were, and the time without that security was draining. The world started to fade in and out as her breathing slowed. Hop was gently combing through her hair, and she breathed out a satisfied hum. It was so good to have him here with her again. It was hardly any time, but she hadn’t realized how intensely she felt his absence, especially now that he was here and hugging her and he was so safe and so warm and so soft and she was so tired… A sweet darkness crept over her eyelids as her body started to feel heavier. 

“Dolls...?” 

She hadn’t slept in days and it was very quickly creeping up on her. Dolly yawned again, nestling into his warmth as her consciousness slipped. His fingers lightly stroked over her forehead and through the hair by her ear, and it was like his arms and the sun were a warm blanket around her. The black of sleep swirled through her senses and water-logged the noises in the air.

“Do-olls,” he quietly sang.

“Hmng…?”

“Yeah, you need a nap.”

“I’m fine,” she mumbled, settling in against his chest again. 

He was, unfortunately, incredibly comfortable. She breathed out another hum when he brushed her hair off her neck.

“You are literally falling asleep standing up. It took you two seconds before you started snoring.”

“I wasn’t snoring…” she yawned. “I wasn’t sleeping.”

He was still combing through her hair and she melted into the touch. She felt the embrace of sleep descending like a fog over her again as the weaving of fingers through hair continued, until after a minute his hand came to rest on her cheek. She expected him to brush against her skin, tuck her hair behind her ear, gently and softly, as warm as the sun.

Instead, he pinched.

Dolly shot back with a yelp, grasping her now throbbing cheek. The fog of sleep had retreated like a Ducklett after a Thunderbolt, and what stood before her was a smirking Hop, his fingers threatening to pinch again.

“What was that for?!” she spat.

“You wouldn’t get up,” he said with a shrug. “And as much as I wish we could stay here forever, you need to go to an actual bed, and I need to train so I can destroy Raihan. Well, his Pokémon team, I mean,”

“Fine,” she grumbled.

Then, before she could stop herself, she pulled him against her again. He was so comfortable.

“Dolls, come on,” he laughed. “You’re making it really hard to leave.”

“Just one more Hop hug, I almost died.”

She gave him one final squeeze and dropped her arms. Hop stepped back and she smiled up at him, adjusting her glasses and rubbing at her eyes. Her face was warm from lying against him and a soft pink still tinged her cheeks. The rays of the sunset were blanketed over them, casting a warm orange glow over the bridge, and something shifted in his eyes as he gazed down at her. His grin had faded, and that intensity in his eyes was back. What was he thinking, when he looked at her like that?

“One more thing, actually...” he started.

“Hm?”

“I… I, um…”

His hands trembled as he moved to hold hers, and she watched as he swallowed. Was _he_ okay?

“I… um…”

She breathed out a laugh as the sunset cast orange and pink rays over the bridge. This was the second time in her life she had ever known Hop to be so cautious. Hop heaved in a breath, then stared into her eyes.

“I think you’re really beautiful.”

And suddenly Dolly was much more alert than she was seconds ago. He was still trembling as he held her hands.

“You said that no man has ever called you beautiful except for Raihan and I do and I’ve always thought so but I could never tell you because I thought it would be weird but honestly you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. S-so. Um. Yeah.”

She stared at him in shock as his cheeks reddened, and he dropped her hands to shove his in his pockets.

“Especially when you smile,” he added quietly, scuffing at the ground with his shoe.

When he flicked his eyes back up to hers, his cheeks were even darker, and Dolly’s mouth was still hanging open.

“Dolls, say something! I feel like a twit now!”

Dolly closed her mouth to swallow and something bloomed inside her chest. As much as she wanted to say something, it was as if every single word she had ever learned had suddenly catapulted itself off the bridge beside her. She let out a small grunt instead.

“You, you just… you smile, um, you smile... good, and your eyes are sparkly a-and… and I love it when you laugh, and you always smell like flowers and… you’re just really pretty… and _augh I sound like an idiot_ ,” he huffed, rubbing his hands over his face.

When she made no response, Hop peeked through his fingers, and huffed again.

“A-and when we were in Circhester I couldn’t stop looking at you when you came downstairs and I sounded like an idiot then too but you’re so beautiful Dolls and I could never tell you and _why aren’t you saying anything?!”_

Hop quickly stepped forward, cupped her face in his hands, and pressed his lips against her forehead. When she froze, he froze, then shot back. 

And suddenly every sound she could ever think to make had also catapulted itself off of the bridge beside her. As she stood there, mouth agape like a Victrebell, Hop stared down at her with just as much shock. Well, more so panic by that point.

“You weren’t saying anything! Arceus, don’t just stand there!”

She just stood there.

Then, one word crawled up from under the bridge and kindly offered itself to Dolly after being so unceremoniously thrown off into oblivion.

“Why…?”

“M-my family does that!” he sputtered out. “It’s… uh… it’s for good luck! Or something,”

“No we don’t,” came a voice from beside them.

Dolly and Hop both jumped away from each other and whipped around. There was Leon, his hands held loosely behind his back, sauntering up to them.

“Lee?! How long have you been standing there?!”

“Eh, long enough.”

If Dolly’s face was hot before, it was burning now. Hop’s was the same as his eyes darted from Dolly to his brother smirking slyly at the both of them.

“Great!” Hop squeaked. “Well now that you’re here I’ll train a spot more!”

He waved a flustered goodbye and booked it into Hammerlocke, leaving Dolly standing next to Leon on the bridge.

“Yeah, we definitely don’t kiss each other ‘for good luck or something,’” Leon scoffed. “As much as I love my little brother, he has never been a very good liar.”

Dolly held up her hand to her mouth as she yawned. She wished Hop were back so she could lean on him again. 

“Weren’t you supposed to be getting a doctor or something?”

Leon shrugged. 

“Got all turned around, but when I came sprinting back here you seemed fine here with Hop,” he said. She could see a smirk out of the corner of her eye. ”Maybe even a little _better_ than fine,” 

“Not sure what you’re on about,” she spat defensively.

“You know ‘Dolls,’ we definitely don’t kiss each other’s foreheads, and I think I’ve only ever seen Hop hug one person besides me and our mum, and that person was our Nana… And now you,” he ended with a sly grin.

“What are you talking about, he hugs people all the time,” she huffed. Dolly couldn’t even count the number of hairs she had accidentally eaten from all the times her face was shoved into the fur on his jacket - he was easily the touchiest friend she had, even counting all of her affectionate Pokémon.

“No,” Leon continued. “He hugs _you_ all the time.”

She opened her mouth to retort but her mind was still fuzzy. If she wasn’t so tired, she would have really put him in his place. So instead, she just crossed her arms and Leon laughed again.

“And it’s about time he told you you’re beautiful. I tried to tell him that blabbing about it to me wasn’t going to get him anywhere, and he actually had to spit it out to you. Kinda wish it wasn’t so awkward though, it was really challenging not to audibly groan at how cringe-worthy that whole situation was. Like, ‘you smile good’? Come on, Hop, we’re not cavemen.”

Dolly’s eyes widened and Leon grinned. 

“He’s… you… to… said it?”

“Okay I guess we are cavemen.”

When she stood there, mouth gaping like a Feebas, Leon stuck his hand out and tousled her hair.

“Alright, anyway, enough teasing from me. Dolly, honestly, I’m glad Hop has someone like you to rely on. He needs someone to ground him, and you’re not a half bad Pokémon Trainer, either. I may even send you two off with my blessing,” he said with another smirk.

Dolly shoved his hand off her head. 

“What happened to no more teasing?” she grumbled.

“It’s just so easy with the two of you, little Dolly. Well anyway, hop on,” he grinned, pointing behind him.

Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together. Was she hearing things now? Hop already left?

“Come on up, time for a piggyback ride from your favorite big brother.”

The corner of Dolly’s mouth twitched up. 

“What are you talking about?”

“If Hop were an actual gentleman, he would have taken you to your hotel so you don’t keel over on the way there. I may have come into him ‘wishing you good luck,’ but I also saw how you fell asleep standing up. So,”

Before Dolly could reply, Leon had unclasped his cape and furled it over her shoulders. It sat like a soft weighted blanket, probably double her size. She snuggled against the soft fur - it felt strangely like Hop’s jacket.

“Oh please, I can walk…” she said half-heartedly, though her eyelids were already feeling heavy.

She glanced toward Hammerlocke. Eh… yeah actually it was a pretty far walk.

Leon knelt down and she clambered onto his back. He hoisted her up as she laughed, feeling leagues taller and grander than she was only moments ago. He plodded along to Hammerlocke as she rested her head down, pulling the fuzzy cape around her more snuggly.

“So are you guys thinking a spring or summer wedding?”

Leon chuckled as she shoved his hat over his eyes.


	22. Proof of Victory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile)

**Chapter 22 - Proof of Victory**

Dolly gave herself a few days to rest. Half of it was for her own sake, and the other half was because once Leon dropped her off at her hotel, he gave her a proper scolding about taking care of herself.

“You’re already high-risk, Dolly, you really shouldn't be doing anything else that threatens you or your Pokémon’s safety,” Leon said as he sternly set his hands on his hips. “It took a lot of persuading to keep you in the Gym Challenge, so you need to make sure you’re healthy as can be the next time you battle, okay?”

Dolly nodded glumly and tucked his cape tighter around her shoulders. He breathed out a sigh, then ruffled her hair.

“You’re doing a good job though, I’m proud of you for making it this far. You’re up against Raihan next, and he’s my greatest rival, so rest up and train well for him.”

She nodded again, covering her yawn with her hand. He squinted his eyes at her. 

“And I thought I told you not to mess around with him? I heard about what happened in Circhester,”

Dolly tried not to yawn again as Leon scolded her for revenge-flirting with Raihan at the Hero’s Bath festival. Her eyes drooped and she started leaning to one side, though when Leon paused in his lecture, she shook her head into focus.

“What? I mean, yes, okay,” she mumbled.

Leon rolled his eyes and shook his head. He playfully tugged the cape off of her shoulders and slung it back around his own.

“Alright, geez, I’m turning into my mum. Now get to bed,” he laughed as he turned her by her head.

After that she waved a goodbye, plodded up the stairs, into her hotel room, and slept for fifteen hours.

Dolly took a few days to do nothing but relax with her Pokémon and explore Hammerlocke. She hadn’t taken the time to look around before, and she tried to abide by Leon’s request to take some time off. Her Pokémon seemed to appreciate it too, as after a few days, they all had leagues more energy than she had ever seen. Not before having a stern chat with Dolly in the park, however.

With a guilty sigh she had tossed out Hudson, Rouge, and Theodore’s Poké Balls. They appeared before her, looking down over their noses at her. Well, snouts and beak. She circled a blade of grass with the tip of her shoe.

“Yes, Lady Dolores?” Theodore huffed as he ruffled his feathers. “Have you come to apologize after so rudely returning us to our Poké Balls?”

“To avoid the earful you knew you were going to get anyway?” Hudson finished. “Better send out Rosa too, she’s got opinions.”

Dolly’s eyes widened. 

“No, not Rosa too…” she said as Hudson nodded gravely. “You told her?”

“She already knew.”

“Of course she did...” Dolly sighed as she rubbed at her face. 

“I’m disappointed in you, my Lady,” Theodore said. “We only care about your safety, and the fact that you were gallivanting about with that philandering cretin only put yourself in danger.”

“You know Raihan wasn’t good for you, and you went along with it anyway. You only hurt your relationships with your Pokémon and your friends.”

“Yeah,” Rouge nodded. “That guy was a creep, and I told you to stop making bad decisions.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Dolly said as she bowed her head. “Thank you for caring about me, and I will work hard to make better choices in the future.” 

Hudson looked to Theodore and Rouge. 

“Anything else from you two? We probably won’t get a word in once Rosa starts.”

“Thank you for apologizing, my Lady, and you are, of course, forgiven,” Theodore said as Hudson and Rouge nodded in agreement. “But please, respect us enough as your partners to heed our warnings in the future.”

Dolly nodded again and gave each of them a hug. She fumbled Rosa’s Poké Ball out of her bag and let out a sigh. Hudson glanced at it as well.

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Hudson said. “She means well, she was really worried about you.”

Dolly let out a final sigh as she returned them to their Poké Balls. When she tossed Rosa out, immediately a high-pitched screech shook the air.

“ _WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!_ I cannot believe your foolishness! Idiota, corriendo con esa casanova… have you no brain cells?! After all-”

Dolly waited patiently as Rosa’s barrage of words and insults landed on her ears. She kicked at the grass as her Bellossom stormed back and forth, and vehemently resisted the urge to check the time.

“-and what of Señor Hop? What did he have to say about your infidelity? And what of your mother? Does she know how devious you have become? If not then I swear-”

Rosa continued, still marching back and forth as her voice carried through the park. Dolly vaguely wondered if she could ask Rosa to keep it down, as people were starting to glance their way. After a few more minutes, Rosa’s sentences finally slowed, and she looked up to her Trainer.

“My Dolly, it is because I love you and care about you that I tell you these things. I know I can speak for each of us when I say that.”

Dolly nodded, her lower lip quivering, and she leaned down to pick up her Bellossom.

“I love you too, Rosa. I’m sorry for making you worry.”

Rosa gave her a pat on the cheek.

“You deserve a man that will treat you with kindness and respect, not one who only cares for your beauty and what you can offer him. When you are choosing among your suitors, just pick the one that is most like Hudson, for he is perfect.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Dolly said with a chuckle, and returned Rosa to her Poké Ball.

Later that day in her hotel, her Pokémon each told her they loved her too, and that they hoped she would take better care of herself in the future. Being kind to herself was challenging at first, but Dolly was slowly trying to make it a pattern, thanks to her friends. After morning calisthenics, Jackson asked her to look in the mirror and say three nice things about herself - it was something he and Mateo used to like to do together. He started by standing tall, setting his hands on his hips, and saying he was a leader, he was strong, and he was a good friend. She started with saying she was caring, she was brave, and she was trying hard to be a better person.

As the days went by, the rest of her Pokémon joined in their little morning exercise. Dolly teared up each time one of them offered an affirmation to the other, especially when Theodore told Jackson he was a ‘valiant, if not roguish, leader and friend.’ She let herself eat, she let herself sleep, and she let herself buy a cute ribbon to tie to her backpack. Even if they were just little steps, she was three little steps closer to loving herself than she was three steps ago.

After she was fully rested, she took advantage of her team’s revitalized energy by training hard in the Wild Area. They were excited to battle again, and Dolly vowed to them that she would never take any unnecessary risks ever again. She promised to forfeit whatever match she was in if she needed to, rather than risk her team’s safety. If what that vision said was true, then they needed to get through a lot of grinding if she wanted to be confident in their strength for the hurdles ahead. 

Through their training, she even managed to catch an Axew, who was shyly gazing at Dolly and her team. Her name was Ophelia, and Dolly gave her a Shell Bell as a token of friendship. Theodore was immediately taken by the quaint, humble, and big-eyed Axew, saying he was grateful Dolly hadn’t caught yet another ‘ridiculous hooligan.’ Dolly had taken to her as well, and picked up the habit of carrying the cute Pokémon in her arms as she traversed the Wild Area.

Dolly was grateful for catching an already high-leveled Pokémon, too. It wasn’t like she wanted to try to beat Raihan - or Leon - with a team of five, and thanks to her Curse, she was quickly running out of spots to catch new team members.

It was very easy for her other Pokémon to compliment Ophelia in their morning exercises, and even Rouge offered a grumbled ‘yeah, you’re cute I guess.’ Hudson had then asked if she thought _he_ was cute, then Rosa asked if she thought _she_ was cute, then Jackson asked if she thought _he_ was cute, then Rouge just swore at them all and returned to her Poké Ball.

She spent quite a bit of time with Hop, too, both of them training and talking and exploring Hammerlocke together. She introduced him to Ophelia by saying ‘Isn’t she the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?!’ and, as she was smiling and sparkling with her darling Axew, he mumbled out a ‘Well, she’s cute, but not the _cutest_ thing he’d ever seen,’ and then when she asked him to explain what he meant, he didn’t.

There was a day or two where Hop was absent, though, and seemed to be abhorrently avoiding answering Dolly’s texts of why he couldn’t hang out with her. Although he continuously affirmed that he wasn’t mad at her or avoiding her, her pointed questions of where he was were answered by unrelated memes. When she asked if he was doing something dangerous, he replied with a picture of a Teddiursa snuggling with a Stufful, and when she asked again, he just sent another picture of a sleeping Swablu. When she spied him in the streets of Hammerlocke, she quickly cornered him.

“D-Dolls!” Hop stuttered. He had finally returned after two days and was looking oddly disheveled as he stumbled against the brick fencing behind him. “Fancy seeing you here!”

“Hop,” Dolly said as she set her hands on her hips. “Where have you been secretly running off to?”

“Nowhere!” he replied with a guilty grin. “I’ve, uh, just been around Hammerlocke!”

She squinted her eyes at him.

“Just around Hammerlocke, huh?”

He nodded, though he wasn’t making eye contact.

“Oh,” Dolly said casually. “Well then you must have seen that parade yesterday, right? The one for Dragon Day?”

Hop forced a grin again.

“Oh, y-yeah, that was brilliant. I love Dragon Day.”

“Ha!” Dolly shouted and pointed a finger at him. “There was no parade and Dragon Day isn’t for months! Where did you go, and why won’t you tell me?!”

“That was a dirty trick!” Hop spat as his face flushed. “Fine… I wanted it to be better than this, but… here.”

Hop reached into his pocket then held out his hand. The sun glinted off the gold chain that draped from his fingers, and Dolly’s accusatory expression melted.

“You found my necklace?” she breathed.

Hop nodded. When he offered it to her, Dolly’s eyes followed the lines of scratches, bruises, and scabs that trailed up his hands, his wrists, his arms. She gasped.

“Hop, what happened?!” she asked as she delicately turned his hands over.

“Oh, I um… I… tripped.”

She glanced up at him.

“Into… a bush.”

Her brow furrowed.

“...Made of… forks.”

“That… doesn’t even make sense,” Dolly huffed. “Stop lying, what happened?”

She gently held his hands in hers as she felt over his fingers, his knuckles, his palms, surveying his injuries. Nothing was deep or would scar, but there certainly were a lot of them.

“When you said you left it in Spikemuth, I just went to go look for it, is all,” Hop said with a shrug, though he still wouldn’t look at her. Instead, he watched her hands as she lightly rolled his sleeves higher to investigate his arms. “I-it’s nothing Dolls, really.”

“Then how did all of this happen?” Dolly asked, raising his hands up to him. “And don’t say it was a bunch of forks.”

Dolly's fingertips gently followed the line of his forearm, and Hop glanced away as his cheeks tinged darker. He scuffed at the ground as he grumbled a reply.

“There… might have been a Thievul involved…”

“A Thievul had it?”

He nodded.

“A couple Thievuls…”

“A couple?!” Dolly repeated. “Are your Pokémon okay?”

“I, uh, I didn’t use my Pokémon…” Hop muttered. He was still watching as she carefully traced the lines of his palm. “I didn’t want it to break.”

“Oh, Hop,” Dolly breathed. “It looks like they bit you and scratched you a thousand times. Is that where these thorns came from?”

“Well, there might’ve been a Maractus involved, too…”

“A Maractus?” Dolly repeated as her eyebrows pulled together. “Maractus don’t live on Route 9.”

Instead of answering, Hop lifted the necklace up by one of the attached charms. The tears pricked in Dolly’s eyes as she breathed out again.

“You got a Solosis charm, and a Vikavolt too… so that’s what was taking you so long, you went all the way to Stow-on-Side...”

Hop nodded again and set the necklace in her hands.

“I told you I would always go back for you.”

The wind was slight, and lightly wisped the chain of her necklace as Dolly glanced up at Hop again. She rubbed over the delicate chain, and it glinted in the light of the sun, just as the gold specks in Hop’s eyes did. Dolly opened her mouth to speak, only to close it again as something pulled in her heart.

He did… he did all of that for her?

Her eyes flit around his face.

He took all that time, all that energy, all that money, put himself in danger, only to insist that it was nothing? All of that...

...for her?

A breath escaped her lips as something again pulled in her heart. Whatever that something was, it magnified inside of her whenever he so thoughtfully cared for her. And whatever it was, it seemed to make those Butterfree swarm in her stomach.

Her lip quivered, and Dolly decided that everything and anything he had ever done ever that even remotely upset her was forgiven and forgotten in that moment, and then some.

He finally looked into her eyes when she coughed out a sob, and the tears that were cautiously pricking in her eyes tumbled out at mach speed and flooded down her face. She flung herself against him and curled her arms around his waist. Hop stumbled backwards with a _‘hurk’_ and had to brace himself on the railing behind them. 

“You did all that for me?” Dolly whimpered. “You’re amazing.”

“It was no big deal, really,” Hop mumbled, though he had the hint of a smile in his voice.

After another squeeze, she stepped back, and gazed up at him again. He had the hint of a smile on his face, too, and she could barely comprehend the care he exuded. Dolly snaked her hand behind his neck, stood on her toes, pulled him down, and gently pressed her lips against his cheek. 

“This is the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” Dolly said softly as she stepped back. “Thank you, Hop.”

Hop’s face was flaring red. It seemed like he was shaking slightly as he stared at her.

“Hop…?”

“Y-yeah,” he squeaked as he jolted into focus. He cleared his throat and forced his voice back to its normal octave. “No problem.”

Dolly guiltily bit her lip when Hop cleared his throat again.

“Oh, um, sorry,” Dolly said. “I shouldn’t have done that."

Hop scratched behind his neck and tried to give a nonchalant shrug.

“No big deal,” he said as he waved a hand at her. “Happens, uh, happens all the time. I don’t mind that kind of stuff, if it’s with you, at least, and-”

Dolly raised her eyebrows, and so did Hop.

“I mean,” Hop coughed. “Not that, not that you would do stuff like that again, or that I would, um, not that I would want you to, b-but not that I _wouldn’t_ want you to, if you wanted to then I would want you to, too, is all I meant, and, um-”

Dolly stood on her toes, balanced her hand on his chest, and lightly kissed his cheek again. His face was warm under her lips.

“R-right,” Hop coughed again as he pulled at his collar. “So, beautiful day for training, don’t you think? You wanna go train? Pokémon? With me? Because it’s beautiful? I mean because you’re beautiful? I-I mean because today’s beautiful? Yeah, actually we should really go train, don’t you think? Beautiful day for it. Training, I mean.”

She bit back another smile.

“Sure Hop, let’s go train.”

As they made their way out of Hammerlocke, Dolly discreetly glanced to the side to see Hop’s fingers grazing over his cheek. He met her eyes and shot his hand back.

They eventually found a decent spot for training out in the Wild Area, and their laughter rang throughout the fields as they bantered and battled for hours. Dolly couldn't believe she had almost discarded such a fun friendship, and she found herself smiling and laughing more than she had in a _long_ time. She could have gone without that part where Hop shoved her into the Lake of Outrage, though. He said it was because there was a Linoone coming after her, but when she peered around, the landscape was Linoone-less, and the only thing she saw was a mischievous Hop who was unsuccessfully trying to hide his smirk. She didn’t feel bad when she pulled him in with her, or when that Mantyke slapped him across the face as it shot out of the water.

After an unfortunate amount of splashing and dunking (where the victor was undetermined, as Hop had the upper hand for a while thanks to his height and strength, but Dolly did ask that Mantyke to slap him again), they finally muddled out of the water when their stomachs started to grumble. They set their shoes, socks, and jackets out to dry, they chased down a Watt Trader, bought some snacks, and filled up on bread, instant noodles, and fancy apples. It was also unanimously decided that pungent roots should not be eaten raw.

After their smorgasbord of a meal, Hop and Dolly both flopped onto the grass with a satisfied hum as the sun beat down overhead. Rookidees and Pidoves chirped as the sun warmed the air around them, and the lake calmly lapped at the shore. There was a slight breeze, not enough to billow, but just enough to wisp the blades of grass, just enough to wisp strands of platinum hair, strands of indigo hair, and it didn’t take long before both Trainers were napping in the grass of the Wild Area.

Dolly hummed a contented sigh as the breeze tickled her face. She turned in her sleep, flung an arm and a leg over the blankets beside her, and nestled her face into them. These blankets were... oddly dense. Awfully soft and warm, though. Smelled good, too. It was like they were holding her in return, and she smiled again. Her consciousness drifted. 

After a while, her senses started to sharpen when the wind wafted around her. The sunlight was still shining down and seemed to whisper in her ear.

“Dolls,”

She sighed again and pulled her blankets closer.

“Dolls, it’s getting late, we should go soon.”

Her brows furrowed. The sun needed to mind its own business, because she was very comfortable.

“No,” she grumbled.

She heard a sigh, then a laugh.

“Come on, we’re both like, damp. We should probably change before we catch something.”

“I can’t catch anything,” Dolly mumbled. “Already used all my Poké Balls. You can ask Hop to catch something though. He’d do it for you, he’s the best.”

“...You think so, huh?”

“Mmhmm,” she hummed. When something hesitantly brushed her bangs off her face, Dolly hummed again, and leaned into the touch.

“Are you even awake?”

“Not really...” she said as she yawned again.

There was a slight pause, then the combing wove through her hair, and Dolly practically melted into her oddly dense and warm blankets.

“So you think Hop is the best…?”

Dolly hummed. Her blankets seemed to wrap around her a little more snug.

“...What else do you think?”

Her brows furrowed. What kind of question was that? She thought a lot of things, but mainly about how she just wanted to go back to sleep.

“I think Sunfloras are kind of creepy looking.”

“No, I mean about Hop.”

Her sentences were hardly coherent as she faded in and out of sleep.

“Do you think he’s funny?”

“Mmhmm.”

Whatever was curled around her was shifting again, and the next question seemed a little closer to her ear.

“Do you think… he’s attractive?”

Her only response was light snoring. Her eyebrows furrowed when she was jostled awake again.

“What?” she grumbled.

“Answer the question.”

“My Weavile thinks he has scrawny ankles,” Dolly said with a sleepy smile. “And she thinks his hair is dumb.”

She vaguely heard a huff.

“What? My hair isn’t- Whatever. We need to go, wake up.”

She grumbled incoherently again and squeezed her eyes closed.

“The Gengars are going to come out soon.”

Her eyes shot open and she whipped her head up.

“Gengars?! Where?!”

When she heard another chuckle, Dolly looked down to see a surprising lack of blankets, but instead a smiling Hop, who was raising an eyebrow at her. She tumbled backwards and out of his arms.

“What’re you doing?!” she yelped as the heat flared in her cheeks.

“What am _I_ doing?” Hop replied incredulously. “You were the one that had a death grip on me!”

“...I did?”

“Yes,” Hop laughed as he sat up. “As soon as you fell asleep you latched onto me. At first I thought you wanted me to move over, but when I did you just clung to me tighter.”

“...Oh, um, sorry.” Dolly muttered as she recalled what she was so comfortably curled around. Turns out it wasn’t a what, but a who, and that who needed to stop looking at her like that, what with his big eyes and long eyelashes and cheeky grin.

“I didn’t mind, actually,” Hop said as he scratched behind his neck. “Really it was one of the best naps I’ve ever had.”

When Hop didn’t look away, Dolly glanced to the ground, and her cheeks were as pink as the pale sunset above them. She combed through the grass with her fingers, remembering back to how she felt when the same motion combed through her hair. The Butterfree swarmed in her stomach when she realized who must have been doing that, and who must have been holding her so gently.

“...Me too,” Dolly said quietly. “I like napping with the sun, er, in the sun, you know?”

Hop nodded. After a moment, he cautiously leaned closer.

“Do you like… napping with-”

“Hey, Hop and Dolly!”

Hop’s eyes widened, his brow furrowed, and his shoulders tensed as he glanced behind Dolly. She turned as well to see Raihan waving vigorously at them from over the hill. They both stood and brushed off the grass from their clothes, and when Hop took a step forward, Dolly stepped between him and Raihan. Hop seemed to relax when Dolly discreetly squeezed his hand behind her back.

“Funny running into both of you here,” Raihan grinned as he tucked his hands into his sweater pockets. “Beautiful day for training, yeah?”

Hop’s jaw tensed, and Dolly glanced between him and Raihan.

“Um, yeah,” Dolly said as she rubbed her thumb over Hop’s knuckles. Though his fist was clenched, he seemed to soften at her motion.

“Glad you’re here though, actually,” Raihan continued. “I’ve been meaning to talk with both of you about how I’ve acted.”

Dolly and Hop glanced at one another, then back up to Raihan. He turned to Dolly first.

“Dolly, I’m really sorry for coming after you like I was some predator,” Raihan sighed as he scratched behind his neck. “You truly are a fun and beautiful woman, and I did enjoy our time together, but I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you when you were vulnerable. I knew you were shaken after Motostoke, I knew you were angry in Circhester, and I knew you were upset after Spikemuth.”

Raihan glanced to the ground, then bowed his head.

“I saw an easy target and I didn’t behave like a good and honorable man should have behaved, and I’m working to change. I hope you can forgive me.”

Dolly raised her eyebrows. 

“Yeah, Raihan, of course,” Dolly said. “Thanks for apologizing.”

Raihan nodded, stood straight, and turned to Hop, who stepped around Dolly and crossed his arms.

“And you, Leon’s little- er, Hop…” Raihan started again. “I’m going to be honest for a second. It’s been really frustrating losing to Leon in everything… so again I played dirty. I wanted to get at Leon for something he had no control over, but cared about…”

Raihan glanced up and offered Hop a small smile.

“And that was his little brother. I knew he cared about you more than anything, so I sank beneath the mud to get back at him. I knew you cared about Dolly, so I thought that getting her would hurt you, and that would hurt him. So, I’m sorry.”

Raihan bowed his head to Hop as well. Hop paused, mulled over the words, then walked up to Raihan. He sized him up, stared him in the eye, and held out his hand. With a toothy grin, Raihan shook it. 

“You’re a good man, Hop. I can see why Dolly likes you so much.”

“Hey!”

“And how she would smile at you whenever you came running up? Yeah, she-”

“ _Raihan.”_ Dolly whispered threateningly.

He chuckled and set his hands back in his pockets. Then, Dolly squinted to see a faint bruise around his eye, and the line of a red scratch underneath it.

"What happened to your face?"

Raihan shrugged.

"Leon came after me because he saw that video from Circhester. He said he’d kill me if I ever touched you again, then he figured out everything else that happened in the hotel and he clocked me in the face."

Dolly and Hop both raised their eyebrows and Raihan shrugged again.

"Nah, we're fine, I'm fine, he was right, and I deserved it. But anyway, enough about me," Raihan grinned. “I’m off, gotta prepare for our Gym battles. I’ll leave you two on your date.”

At that, they both flared red.

“Oh, w-we’re not,”

“We’re just training,”

“Yeah, just training,"

“This isn’t a…”

“Yeah, not a date.”

“Nope.”

“Definitely just training.”

“Yes. Definitely. Definitely not a date.”

“...”

“Not a date.”

Raihan raised an eyebrow.

“So… when you two were snuggling just then… that was… training?”

“Uh.”

“W-we weren’t-”

“Yes.”

“Oh, um, I mean yes. Yes, it was. It’s a… a new... technique.”

Raihan pursed his lips and nodded.

“Wow,” he said. “Leon was right, you two really are something else. Well, I guess I’ll leave you to your not-date, then.”

And with that he took off, leaving the stuttering and flushed Trainers alone in the Wild Area. After a minute Dolly saw a text from Raihan recommending a restaurant in downtown Hammerlocke for her and Hop’s next not-date, and Dolly shoved her phone back in her pocket.

The next few days went by in a flash, as they were filled with nonstop activity. After Raihan texted her again in the Wild Area, Hop was getting suspicious, so Dolly bashfully mentioned how Raihan already got them a reservation at his favorite restaurant. Hop agreed they should check it out, because they wouldn’t want to waste a reservation, right? As she prepared for the night, Dolly had to vehemently explain to all of her Pokémon that it _was not a date,_ she wasn’t sure if they believed her, especially after Hop brought her flowers when he picked her up. She and Hop had to explain to the waitress at the restaurant that it _was not a date_ , even after Hop paid for their meal (despite Dolly’s initial refusal), and Hop may have received another kiss on the cheek for such a fun night. And perhaps another one for the flowers, and perhaps another one for the gold ribbon he bought her at that market they passed by downtown. When Rouge mentioned he was buying her things to get a kiss, Dolly’s ensured it was just because he was a good friend. The thought made her a little sweaty for some reason, though.

Although Dolly unsuccessfully hid her smile for the rest of the night, the next morning she also unsuccessfully hid it when Hop texted her good morning, and when he brought her more flowers when they met for breakfast. After their meal, they finally parted, as Dolly wanted no distractions when training for her upcoming battle with Raihan. Not that Hop was distracting, though. He especially wasn’t distracting when he leaned towards her whenever she spoke, or how he seemed to hug her for longer than usual, or when he brushed her hair from her cheek and asked her to be safe when he dropped her off at the Wild Area.

During their Wild Area training, Ophelia finally evolved from a Axew, to a Fraxure, to a Haxorus, and Dolly let out a small sigh at the fact that she couldn't carry her cute Axew around anymore. Her team was faring well, though, and they were quickly gaining experience and working well together for the double battle that was soon to come. Her Pokémon finally hit their goal levels, and not with a moment to spare. Dolly’s battle with Raihan was that day, and she was more ready than she had ever been.

After a pep talk with her team, Dolly headed into the massive castle that was Hammerlocke Stadium. Although she had been in Hammerlocke for a while, and a few times before, she had never stepped foot into the stadium itself. She stood and took in a breath, taking a moment to appreciate its grandeur.

The atrium was magnificent, and the ceiling was even taller than the stadium in Motostoke. Dark bricks and banners that bore the Dragon Gym insignia decorated the walls as Dolly walked through, and the glowing lanterns above her head cast a warm glow over the room. As her name and image were displayed on one of the screens in the lobby, advertising her match with Raihan, the words from that talk show blared through her mind.

As Dolly stepped into the changing room, she was sure of one thing - she would not continue her ‘streak.’ No Pokémon would fall due to her carelessness. None of her friends would die at her hand ever again. She was rested this time, she was prepared this time, and she was ready. She pulled on her glove and headed to the pitch of the very last leader of the Gym Challenge.

A tidal wave of noise erupted from the stands and sounded through the arena, and the domed roof seemed to amplify the cries of the crowd. Dolly breathed in with each step, breathed out with each step, and soon Raihan met her in the middle with that familiar crooked grin. Dolly couldn’t help but match his expression as the familiar edge of competition oozed into her blood. 

“Finally a Challenger made it, though I’ve got to admit I didn’t think it would be you,” Raihan said. “Guess I should’ve expected no less from a Pokémon Trainer that Leon saw promise in,”

Dolly rolled her eyes and set her hands on her hips. 

“And you aim to defeat Leon,” Raihan continued. “Do you have any idea just how high a hurdle that is? As his greatest rival, I guess that I - Raihan - will have to show you! Gym Leader Raihan doesn’t simply control the weather. He also seeks two on two battles! You must be-”

“Why are you talking like that?” Dolly interrupted.

Raihan faltered, his sentence pausing.

“Talking like what?”

“You’re referring to yourself in the third person.” 

“I-well, yeah, it’s cool.”

“Is it?”

“A-anyway!” Raihan huffed as a slight red stained his cheeks. “You must be prepared for any situation against a foe like him. And-”

“You’re doing it again.” 

“Dolly, you’re ruining my Gym Leader monologue!” 

Dolly grinned again as Raihan huffed and set his hands on his hips. 

“Fine, whatever, you’ll be sorry after the great Raihan wipes the floor with you!”

“We’ll see about that,” Dolly replied as the fire of competition blazed between them.

As she walked to her end of the pitch, she couldn’t help but grin. This was it. The final Gym Leader. After all she had been through, there were only a handful of hurdles left before beating Leon, before breaking the Curse.

And those blue eyes were one of them.

Dolly threw out Hudson and Theodore, already having staged a plan of attack for the double battles she knew Raihan was fond of. Although it wouldn’t be super effective against his Flygon, Hudson’s Earthquake and Theodore’s immunity to it would be an effective tactic against a majority of Raihan’s team.

Immediately Raihan’s Gigalith whirled a sandstorm up into the air. It didn’t take long before the entire pitch was coated with sand, with the small particles whipping around them and into Dolly’s eyes and into her hair. Although she couldn’t see them, she could feel where Hudson and Theodore were - and neither of them were swayed by the sandstorm raging around them. Neither faltered as Hudson shook the Hammerlocke stadium with his critical-hit Earthquake, and Theodore flew high enough to escape the storm altogether. Her Mudsdale stomped against the ground and it shook with each step, and it didn’t take long before Raihan’s Gigalith was down.

That Flygon wasn’t taking as much damage as she had hoped - it was quick, and although Theodore was well-timed in his attacks, he wasn’t as nimble as Flygon was. The two Pokémon hurdled through the air, under each other, over each other, all the while clawing and pecking and hurling gusts of wind laced with sand.

Dolly calculated as she watched Theodore in the air and Hudson on the ground. The Sandaconda wasn’t much of an issue, though that Flygon was powerful, and Theodore was starting to slow. Every time the sandstorm seemed to falter, Flygon beat its wings against the ground, and the sand whipped around again. The sound of the stadium blurred just as her vision did, and Dolly froze when she heard the crackle of electricity.

Dolly glanced up, and her eyes widened.

Sparks flung from the claws from Flygon, and it hurtled towards Theodore again. Her Corviknight was struggling to flap his wings as the wind and sand whirled around them, and when the Flygon reared its fist, Dolly called Theodore back to his Poké Ball. 

The Flygon Thunder-Punched the wall instead, Hudson galloped to it, then Heavy Slammed the Flygon into the wall. Dolly breathed out a sigh of relief - one less of Raihan’s Pokémon to worry about. The Sandaconda was down, and Raihan had one Poké Ball left – his infamous Duraludon.

Dolly hurled another Poké Ball behind her, the weight of the Dynamaxed Haxorus formed a crater in the ground, and all of Hammerlocke shook when Ophelia’s call bellowed through the air. The two massive Dragon-type Pokémon rampaged around the pitch, shaking the earth with each step. The sandstorm was still raging, though Dolly didn’t need to rely on her vision - she knew her Pokémon as well as the blood that beat through her veins.

Steel spikes erupted from the ground from the Duraludon, then shattered like glass as Hudson unleashed another Earthquake. Dolly nearly lost her head when a steel shard whipped through the stadium just as the sandstorm did. Every once in a while, she could see the glint of Raihan’s blue eyes through the storm. She couldn’t help but grin, because those were the eyes that used to so easily make her stumble. And yet, here she was, blasting forth in a blaze of power, undeterred by anything and anyone. Dolly was sure of herself, she was sure of her Pokémon, and with a final flourish, the Duraludon was down.

Victory.

It was the blue of the sky that was glinting instead as the sand and the steel began to settle onto the earth. The entire pitch was coated, as were the stands and the audience and the Trainers standing across from one another. Dolly and Raihan stepped over the sand and metal and turf of the pitch, meeting in the middle as both panted and wiped the sand and sweat from their brows. 

“In the aftermath of a furious battle,” Raihan finally said, gazing at the twinkling noon sky above them. “I feel as pure and refreshed as when the sky clears after a storm. What can I possibly say? Calling myself Leon’s rival? Seems I’d grown quite conceited for someone who can’t even claim the title of Champion. I’ve been overconfident in myself and in my team. I’ll give you what you want, then. The proof of your victory - the Dragon Badge!”

Dolly beamed as Raihan set the small gold Badge into her palm. He shook her hand, then stepped back.

“Great work, Dolly, I can’t say I’m surprised you beat me after all that,” Raihan said. “I’ve learned a lot from you - about passion, about humility, and about perseverance. You’re not half bad. I’m excited for you to win through the semifinals and take from Leon the title of Galar’s hero!”

As the crowd roared, Dolly couldn’t help but grin.

“Yeah, I think Galar deserves a new hero who knows how to chew with her mouth closed.”

Raihan laughed, offered her a friendly hug, and they made their way off opposite sides of the pitch. The cheers from the crowd were overwhelming as Dolly stepped across the turf, offering a few waves and a slight smile, her heart throbbing as they cheered her name.

She changed, tried to shake off as much of the sand as she could, and made her way back into the stadium atrium. The Gym Trainer who stood at the entrance to the pitch stepped aside for her, smiled, and offered her a congratulations. She gave him a nod and started to turn, she heard her name called, then her eyes grew wide.

“H-Hop, slow dow- _hrrrnk!”_

Hop launched himself into a hug and his momentum catapulted them onto the ground where they were now lying in an unceremonious heap in the middle of the atrium. Dolly was trying to spit her hair out of her mouth as Hop tore into his sentences at a mile a minute.

“You’re done with the Gym Challenge, Dolls! You did it! That match was brilliant, you were brilliant! You’re so clever, I could feel that passion from my seat, I don’t know how I’m supposed to follow that up, what a great match, and the crowd was cheering for you the entire time! One more match and I’ll beat the Gym Challenge too, and-”

Hop babbled at her for a few more seconds, and Dolly couldn’t help but smile. Finally, after all the time she spent, after all she suffered, she finally did it. Eight Badges, six Pokémon, and a thousand other hurdles, she was finally closing in on her goal. Hop finally finished enthusing and gave her another hug. 

“Normally people say ‘congratulations,’ but you nearly gave me a concussion, you twit,” she laughed. “Don’t you need to go? Your match is starting soon.”

“I know,” Hop said as he pulled back. “I just wanted to tell you what a great job you did. You’re so amazing, and using a Flying-type as a partner for a Mudsdale who knows Earthquake decimated half of Raihan’s team in no time, I honestly should have been taking notes, and oh man, your Haxorus was absolutely wicked, stomping around and destroying Raihan’s Duraludon with that Max Wyrmwind-”

“Hop,” she said with a laugh, cutting him off. “Don’t start again, or you’re going to be late.”

He grinned and nodded, though he was still holding onto her waist as they sat on the ground.

“Yes, right. Um, well, I should go then.”

“Probably.”

“Good job though, Dolls,”

“Thank you,”

“I mean it, that was so fun to watch, and I was on the edge of my seat and-”

“Hop.”

“Right.”

They both stood, and Dolly shook more sand out of her hair. She glanced up to see Hop watching her, and a light pink stained her cheeks.

“Go!” she huffed, turning him by his shoulders and shoving him towards the locker room. 

As he tripped towards the locker room, he gave her another wave, and Dolly set her hand over her pounding heart. She shook the thought out and headed into the stands to watch Hop’s match.

It was challenging to acquire a ticket, since they sold out almost immediately. Hop was still one of the most popular Challengers, if not _the_ most popular Challenger, but there was no way Dolly wasn’t going to watch this match live. He was fun, entertaining, and good at battling, and it had been a long time since she watched him battle live against someone who wasn’t her.

Dolly was grateful for how well-trained the Rotom cameras were because she could barely see Hop, Raihan, or any of their Pokémon as another sandstorm blustered around them. The cameras were following the Pokémon, Dubwool and Rillaboom destroyed Raihan’s Gigalith and Flygon, then the image was lost again as Raihan called for a more intense sandstorm from his Sandaconda. The Rotom camera was buffering, and when the image was back, Dolly’s eyes widened, and her heart pounded.

Woah.

Um.

...Wow.

She had never seen him look like _that_ before.

Hop was stoic, powerful, with a slight furrow in his brow as he ordered his Pokémon forth. Why was her mouth getting dry? Was it the sandstorm? Probably. Dolly couldn’t tear her eyes away from the intensity that Hop exuded there on the screen. And yet, she could barely look at the same time, what with how furiously the Butterfree were flapping in her gut when he had that expression on his face. Was it getting hot in there? Yeesh, Raihan, chill with the Sunny Day. Dolly had to wave the heat off her face.

There was no hint of his impish grin as Hop’s Pokémon beat through Raihan’s Sandaconda, and she still wasn’t sure why she couldn’t tear her gaze from Hop’s face. Then, Dolly was again grateful for the Rotom camera’s skill, because when Hop hurled his Poké Ball behind him to Dynamax, that camera caught an _excellent_ angle.

Dolly had never seen a Dynamaxed Pincurchin before, and the electricity sparked through the stadium as Raihan’s Duraludon was defeated again. As the sandstorm settled and the blue sky shone, Hop’s friendly countenance was back. Dolly found it challenging to stand when she remembered that stoic expression. Then, as the stands erupted around her, Dolly joined in, and cheered as loud as she could for her friend who just completed the Gym Challenge.

She wove through the people, tore through the stands, and when she made it to the atrium, Dolly launched herself onto him just as Hop had, though she wasn’t heavy enough to knock him to the ground. So instead, she held both of his hands and babbled at him for a few minutes on how brilliant _his_ match was. As she spoke, she watched with an odd satisfaction as the light pink stain on his cheeks colored into a dark red as she continued gushing.

“Thanks Dolls,” he grinned when she finished enthusing. “That was probably the best battle I’ve ever had.”

“Absolutely brilliant,” Dolly said, gripping his hands in hers. “Raihan didn’t stand a chance.”

Hop started to modestly wave her off, shrugged, then he nodded as that cheeky grin spread over his face.

“Yeah he was toast. I’ve finally decided how I want to battle. I’ve changed my form a bit, and I think it’s working,” Hop said.

Dolly remembered back to his stoic expression, to the power and dominance he exuded, and how he absolutely annihilated Raihan without breaking a sweat. She slowly nodded as she breathed a dazed reply.

“Th-that was… you were… s-so manly. MAINLY,” Dolly corrected as she jolted into focus. “Y-you were _mainly_ the best um, the best battler there! Great work.”

Hop raised an eyebrow and grinned. He cautiously leaned towards her.

“Manly, huh?” he repeated.

“Right I think it’s time to go,” she squeaked. “Anyway your Pincurchin was cool.”

They left the stadium together, their conversation building up again until they were both talking a mile a minute about Pokémon battles, then, oddly enough, about Wooloo wool, and happened to run into Sonia and Professor Magnolia. After a congratulations from the both, a back and forth about Sonia’s research, her success, and Professor Magnolia bequeathing her lab coat to Sonia, Dolly watched Professor Magnolia head out into the city. Then, she and Hop gushed at Sonia, congratulating _her_ , only for her to blush and wave them off. When they kept going, she only rolled her eyes and started pushing them to the train station, telling them they would be late for their train to Wyndon if they kept nattering at her like that. They did end up catching their train - but just barely.


	23. Worthy of Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 23 - Worthy of Love**

“Rouge had an unfair advantage anyway,” Jackson grumbled as he crossed his arms and kicked at the snow.

Dolly rolled her eyes as she and her team stood in the snowy tundra of Route 10, shivering and dripping wet. As soon as she and Hop arrived at the White Hill station, he had sprinted off, determined to train as hard as he could for the semifinals. So, it was just Dolly and her team to start the trek. 

Well, she was hoping they would have started the trek by now. She had tossed them all out of their Poké Balls to talk with them and enthuse with them on what great work they had all done thus far. They all cheered, celebrated, but when Rouge chucked a snowball at the back of Jackson’s head, their friendly celebration escalated into war.

The clearing by the train station provided a slew of snowbanks and icy barriers as the six Pokémon and one Trainer chucked snowballs, laughing and mocking one another as they dipped under and around the barrage of flinging snow. Although Dolly was the exact opposite of athletic, she was a force to be reckoned with, as all of the Poké Ball throwing meant she had quite the arm, and excellent aim.

They had to pause for a few minutes when they couldn’t find Rosa, as she was buried under a snow pile that Theodore had blown at her. She made herself known by blasting a barrage of petals into the air, along with snow, only for it to fall back onto her with a ‘ _plumph_.’ 

Dolly had to eventually halt their snowball-flinging, as dusk was starting to settle over the route, and she watched as all of her Pokémon - sans her Weavile and Cinderace - were shivering uncontrollably. They all gathered together for a group hug as Jackson heated the air around them.

“I love you all so much,” Dolly sighed, nestling against Jackson’s heat. “Good work, all of you, I couldn’t have made it this far without your hard work. Thank you for how much you’ve all done for me, for each other, for this team. Thank you for staying with me and fighting with me through all of this. We’ll win the semifinals, win the Champion Cup, and we’ll finally break the Nuzlocke Curse.”

“We love you too,” Hudson said as he nuzzled against her hair. 

“It’s true, my Dolly,” Rosa said, though her sentence was muffled from hugging against Jackson’s leg for warmth. “You have a lovely heart.”

Jackson nudged her and raised his eyebrows.

“What?”

“Say it too,” he grinned.

Dolly paused, half a breath escaping her lips. Then, she smiled.

“I… I have a lovely heart.”

“You are courageous, my Lady,” Theodore said.

Jackson nudged her again with a grin.

“I’m… I’m courageous.”

“You’re kind,” Ophelia said.

Dolly’s eyes darted to Jackson, who was still grinning at her.

“...I’m kind…”

“You’re thoughtful, too,” Hudson added.

When Dolly paused, Jackson nodded again.

“I’m thoughtful.”

“I’d say you’re pretty headstrong, yeah,” Rouge added with a toothy grin.

“I’m… I’m headstrong.”

Jackson stared into her eyes again.

“You are worthy of love,” he said.

Dolly’s heart kicked and her voice caught in her throat. When she glanced around to all of her dear Pokémon encircling her, she couldn’t help but feel the tears pricking at her eyes. They tumbled down, and Jackson hugged himself against her.

“I’m… I’m…”

He squeezed her tighter, and she finally let out a laugh, though it sounded a bit like a half-laugh, half-sob as she finally said the words she worked so hard to say.

“I’m worthy of love.”

The tears tumbled as she thought that just as much as she was on a journey to break the Nuzlocke Curse, she was also slowly learning how to love herself again. Many long years of hating, of despising, of being disgusted at the girl in the mirror. Those years were in the past.

As soon as that thought crossed Dolly's mind, a new confidence seemed to blaze within her. She could finally say it. She could finally believe it. She loved herself. That strange and foreign concept, that unattainable goal, that little trickle of truth that dwelled in the bottom of her heart, it had finally blossomed after waiting for so long.

She had her problems, she had her flaws, but she was also kind, caring, clever, brave, and supportive. She was intelligent and diligent, and she gave everything she could to love those around her. Rosa was right - she had a good heart. Even if many thought it was selfish, if many thought it was misguided, she had a good heart. One that was hers, and one that she loved. 

She reached up and touched the Pecha berry on her necklace and smiled again.

“I love myself.”

At those words, Jackson wrapped his arms around his Trainer even tighter. As she hugged her dear friend, she couldn’t help but beam. Every little step she took brought her closer to this secret goal. Every time she had to reframe a thought, every time she let herself eat a nutritious meal, or get enough sleep, or not watch a rubbish talk show about her; each of those moments was another step closer to truly loving herself. Every time she told herself that no, she wasn’t an idiot, or no, she wasn’t a monster, every time she told herself that it was okay that she made a mistake and could learn from it, every time she accepted a compliment, or every time she smiled at herself in the mirror, every little step helped her truly love herself again.

And here she was, standing in the snow and the gray of Route 10, her dedicated team at her side. Shivering uncontrollably, sure, but her heart was warm.

After a final chorus of cheers and celebration, and quite a bit more shivering, Dolly sent each of her Pokémon back into their Poké Balls as she finally started the trek into Route 10. She let out a contented sigh as she glanced above her to see that dusk was already beginning over the route. Guess she wouldn’t make much progress today, but that was fine. She was still shivering from the snowball war, and the cold water had seeped into her loafers and socks... and through the rest of her clothes. Even her jacket was soaking.

After a battle Dolly stopped to check her phone. Wyndon couldn’t be too far, right? She didn’t really want to catch hypothermia. She noticed a text from Hop from a few minutes before, and had to scroll past a handful of memes before getting to any actual words.

_Where u at??_

She tapped out a response.

_Just finished my first battle with that doctor guy_

A chat bubble appeared immediately after she hit send.

_??? He was at the beginning of the route? Are you still at the train station???_

_...maybe_

Hop sent an emoji of a Pikachu slapping its forehead. 

_Well I need your help, just keep going and we’ll meet in the middle_

Dolly sent him a thumbs up and tucked her phone back into her pocket. She trudged through the snow, now a little fearful that her teeth were going to break from how much they were chattering. 

Fat snowflakes tumbled through the air and plopped into the banks around her. Route 10 was quite gray, especially as dusk settled, but Dolly didn’t mind. It felt like the sound after the last note of an orchestra, right before the audience applauded. It was fulfilling and peaceful.

The farther she traveled, however, the less fulfilling and peaceful the route became. She plodded through the snow, her hair brushing her face just as the snow did, and it didn't take long before she was sufficiently freezing. She couldn’t decipher how deep the snow was anymore, thanks to her numb ankles. Why didn’t anyone tell her Route 10 was a huge snowdrift? She would have worn actual pants. Her tiny skirt didn’t help much either, as it also kept getting whipped around in the wind. Jackson was out from their last battle, walking beside her to help her keep warm, but that didn’t keep the cold from stabbing into her nostrils. They continued through Route 10, and after a while Jackson turned to her and rubbed heated paws over her arms.

“So, uh," Jackson started. "Normally people who love themselves, like, take care of themselves and wear actual warm clothes instead of wearing paper.”

“I didn’t know it was going to be this cold…” Dolly grumbled, though she gratefully leaned into Jackson’s warmth.

“Thought that was what the internet was for? Preparing for long journeys and whatever.”

“Yeah, well, I was a little distracted before catching the train here, I had to watch Hop’s last Gym Challenge match.”

His paws halted on her arms. 

“What’re you still talking to _him_ for?” he growled.

Dolly’s brow furrowed, the realization hit her, and she breathed out an awkward laugh. She forgot Jackson still held a vendetta against Hop ever since their fight in Circhester... When would her Pokémon not berate her for talking to tall, dark men? 

“He’s fine now, Jackson, really. We talked it over and we’re all good. I forgave him, he forgave me, we’re peachy-keen.”

He stood back and crossed his arms over his chest, and immediately Dolly missed the warmth. 

“It’s going to take quite a bit for me to find him _peachy-keen_ ,” Jackson replied, the words dripping out from his clenched teeth. “I hated seeing you like that, Dolly, and it was his fault.”

“I love myself now though, remember?”

“Yeah but that doesn’t mean-”

“Dolls!”

As if on cue Hop appeared over the hill, waving vigorously at them. Immediately Jackson stood between them and puffed out his chest.

“You’ve barely made any progress, I had to retrace like, every single one of my steps! What have you even been doing this long?” Hop asked as he trotted up to them. 

“We, uh… might have had a snowball war.”

Hop laughed and shook his head. 

“Sounds like fun, but now you’re probably freezing, yeah?”

Dolly gave a sheepish shrug. 

“Well,” Hop continued with a grin. “Now that I’m here, I’ve got a favor to ask.”

She raised an eyebrow. 

“Can we sleep together?”

Jackson lunged at Hop’s throat and Dolly had to use all of her strength to keep her rabid Cinderace from killing Hop.

“Wait, wait! That came out wrong! I mean with you - on you - in you - no, in _your tent!_ With you in your tent!” Hop yelped as he scrambled away from the furious Cinderace. “No, hold on, that’s not what I meant either!”

Dolly tugged Jackson back as he flung fireballs at Hop and shouted obscenities. Dolly was glad she was the only one who could understand him, and also disgruntled at his colorful vocabulary. Where did he even learn all that?

“I just need a place to stay! My tent was torn in half by a Beartic earlier today, that’s all I meant!” Hop said, though his reply was muffled from his arms over his face.

Jackson halted in his fireball flinging.

“I just need to crash somewhere for one night, that’s all! I already made it halfway through the route, so it shouldn’t take me long to make it to Wyndon by tomorrow!”

Jackson glared and bared his fangs, still juggling a fireball between his paws. Hop crossed a finger over his chest. 

“I swear. Nothing funny, just need somewhere to sleep and I managed to ask in the literal worst way possible.”

Dolly looked between her two best friends, one tossing a fireball around, the other cowering in the snow. She pursed her lips.

“Not sure how happy that’ll make Jackson here, as you can tell. He’s still pretty upset about what happened in Circhester.”

“Just one night, promise, then I’ll be out of your hair. And fur.”

She sighed and looked between the two again. She’d normally jump at the chance to help him, but it wasn’t fair to Jackson after how hard he had been working lately. He could use some restful sleep, and that probably wouldn’t happen if Hop were around… And ever since Dolly learned about her particularly grabby sleeping habits, the last thing she wanted was to accidentally wake up latched onto Hop like some Dreepy on a Dragupult… again.

She bit her lip guiltily. She’d have to tell Hop no, that he could stay in the train station. Hop finally stood and brushed the snow off. 

“Come on, Dolls, I’ll do anything. I’ll owe you a favor, whatever you wan-” 

Hop froze, and Dolly raised an eyebrow.

“Actually, no,” he said quietly. “Maybe I won’t.” 

A sly grin inched onto his face. 

“What?” Dolly asked.

“Remember Turffield?”

Well that was literally ages ago. How was she supposed to remember anything that far back?

“Milo’s Wooloo?” Hop finished as a grin inched onto his face.

Oh. Yeah okay she did remember that.

Dolly’s mouth hung open as Hop stood tall, brushed off the snow, and crossed his arms. 

“My face was itchy for days after tending to all of them so they didn’t destroy all of Turffield, thanks to you. I think it’s high time to cash in that favor _you_ owe _me_.”

Dolly looked to Hop’s smug grin, then to Jackson’s bared fangs. She slapped her forehead and groaned.

“Fine, but you two better agree to get along for the night.”

“What?!” Jackson yelped as he turned to Dolly. “But he’s not, he can’t-”

“Wicked! Thanks mate, you’re the best. Dubwool and I won’t cause any trouble, promise.”

Hop flashed his signature grin, threw his bag on the ground, and started pulling supplies from it. She gave Jackson an apologetic pat as he grumbled and crossed his arms.

Dubwool too? Dolly let out a sigh. Often when Dolly was camping, the tent was roomy, with plenty of space for her, her Cinderace, her bag, and one other Pokémon if they wanted to spend the night out of a Poké Ball.

However, this was not one of those situations. As they set up Dolly’s tent, she realized that, although there was normally plenty of room, the tent wasn’t as accepting of two Trainers and their belongings, a four-foot-seven Cinderace, and a massive fuzzy Dubwool. Despite their cramped conditions, Dolly wasn’t intending to let her best mate freeze to death so close to the Championship Cup. So, she grimaced and moved to the side of the tent. 

She fondly remembered when Jackson would snuggle against her head on her pillow, but ever since he evolved apparently he was too cool for that now. So, she couldn’t get too close to him, and there was no way on earth she would move any closer to Hop’s side. As they pulled out belongings and blankets, Dolly let out a huff.

“Can’t you put Dubwool in a Poké Ball? No offence mate, but he’s huge.”

Hop gasped and covered Dubwool’s ears. 

“I could never even consider it! Dubwool will never again leave my side for the rest of my life! I can’t even dream of falling asleep without that soft wool next to me,” Hop said as he gave Dubwool a kiss on the forehead, who bleated happily in return.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “But you both better stay over on your side.” 

The last thing she wanted was a smug Rouge assuming the worst, or another lecture from an appalled Theodore... Or Hop burnt to a crisp by the morning.

~~

Dolly was about to extinguish the fire in her lantern. She had prepped as much as she could so they could quickly be on their way to Wyndon in the morning. Jackson, Dubwool, and Hop were already snoozing away, and Dolly let out a chuckle. She was surprised that Jackson didn’t make her sleep on the opposite side of the tent from Hop, as he instead took the spot closest to the tent wall for himself. She remembered back to how Dubwool mentioned they might block the wintery cold from their Trainers if she and Hop slept in the middle between them.

So discreetly selfless, Dolly thought as she gazed at her Cinderace. She chuckled to herself and closed the clasp on her bag. What an odd Pokémon. She didn’t even want to imagine what she would be like without his friendship... Probably wearing her regular clothes, actually.

Although it had dried slightly from their snowball war, her other shirt was soaking again thanks to her overprotective Cinderace. Jackson had shoved her into the snow when Hop stood too close to ask her a question as they set up her tent. She didn’t want to wear her sandy Challenger’s uniform, since she hadn’t washed it since battling Raihan, and it wasn’t like her Shuckle tank would provide much warmth. Even her jacket was soaking. When she was arguing with Jackson about it, Hop chucked something at her face, and she was fully ready to argue with him too, only to pause when she realized what he chucked at her. The soft fabric in her hands was none other than one of his extra shirts - and as soon as she realized it, the heat flared in her cheeks.

Hop had shrugged and said he was simply tired of listening to them argue. She tried to hand it back, but Jackson was also tired of arguing, so he made Hop stand outside their tent while she pulled on a dry pair of leggings and slipped his shirt on. Then, he had come back in, stared at her for a few seconds, was about to say something, only to stop when Jackson growled at him again.

Dolly fiddled with her blanket and bit back a yawn. She set her head down on her pillow and tried to be discreet when she brought the soft shirt fabric up to her nose. It smelled just like him.

She reached to click off the fire from the lantern, but her head turned when she heard a sharp intake of breath. Hop was facing her now, eyebrows furrowed, eyes squeezing shut. He was rubbing a spot on his chest.

“Hop?” she whispered.

His eyes slowly opened, and Dolly set herself up on her elbows.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine,” he replied, though he wasn’t very discreet when he tried to hold back a grimace.

“No you’re not. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he muttered as he stared at the floor of the tent.

He jerked his hand away from the spot on his chest, and Dolly's eyes widened.

“That Beartic got you, didn’t it?”

He didn’t respond, and instead turned away from her again. She crawled to him, turned him back by his shoulder, but when he let out a grunt her hand shot back.

“Hop!”

“Fine, yes, it did. I’m fine though, Dolls, really. It’s just a scratch.”

“Yeah right. You’re also the person who broke his arm three summers ago and said he only needed ‘to ice it for a day then he’d be good.’”

“Well what do you want me to do about it? It’s the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere.”

“Let me help,” she whispered as she gently reached toward him again. Her fingers lightly brushed over his shirt. “I’ve got bandages and disinfectant in my bag.”

He looked to the ceiling of the tent for a second.

“Seriously,” Dolly continued. “You know how many times I’ve been injured recently. A Pokémon Center nurse gave me some cream that works wonders, you’ll feel better in no time.”

Hop heaved out a sigh. 

“Fine.”

He slowly lifted himself up as Dolly smiled.

“After all the times you’ve patched me up it’s the least I could do.”

Hop rolled his eyes and gingerly shook off his jacket while Dolly opened her bag again and pushed around until she found the disinfectant and bandage roll. If it was on his chest, she might need quite a bit of it, if it was to go all the way around his chest and maybe around his shoulder, too. She turned back to him, supplies in hand. It seemed his cheeks were a bit darker as he cautiously glanced at her in the yellow glow of the lantern light. 

“What’re you waiting for? I won’t let you bleed out on my watch.”

Hop looked to the floor of the tent again. What was he being so bashful for? It wasn’t like this would take long. She just had to slab some cream on, wrap it up, then they could finally get some shut eye.

Hop’s eyes flicked to hers, then down to the floor of the tent as he carefully lifted his shirt. He peeled it off, careful of his injury, and as he sat there, shirt on the floor, hair a bit tousled, it dawned on Dolly why he may be embarrassed.

Ah. Yes. Right.

She couldn’t stop her eyes from flitting over his bare chest, shoulders, arms, taking in what she had felt through his shirt so many times. Rouge’s teasing in Circhester about his muscles replayed in her head, but that was back in Circhester, during that festival, where he was shirtless then too, and it didn’t seem to be a problem. But then again, there were a bunch of other people around. The setting there wasn’t quite as dark or as warm or as… ahem...

Intimate.

When he looked to the side, cheeks tingeing darker, she cleared her throat and crawled toward him. The lantern fire flickered, and the platinum sheen of her hair seemed to glint in the light as it swayed when she inched closer. She trailed her fingers over the haphazard bandage that was there before, and spots of red peeked from underneath it. Her eyebrows furrowed.

“Geez Hop, this looks like it hurts… who put this bandage on? This wrapping job sucks.”

“Well it’s not like I could do it well,” he huffed as he crossed his arms. “And Rillaboom tried to help, but his hands were too big to tie the knots well, and no other Pokémon on my team has opposable thumbs.”

“Well it’s a good thing Doctor Dolly is here to help,” she joked. She quietly stood and stepped around to his back and untied the pitiful knot that was there before. The bandages fell, Dolly unraveled the rest, then knelt in front of him again.

Her cheeks grew warm as well as she tried to not stare at his bare shoulders, chest, abdomen. She grimaced when her eyes landed on the gouge from the Beartic. Her lower lip stuck out as her fingers hovered beside it. 

“Poor thing, this looks painful,” she whispered, gingerly wiping the dried blood away with a dampened cloth. “And Jackson attacking you like that earlier probably didn’t help.”

“Tuck that lip back,” Hop laughed quietly. “It looks worse than it is. I’m not some baby.”

“I know, but you don’t have to pretend to be tough around me, Hop,” she replied. “You’re allowed to be hurt, too.”

When he didn’t respond, she glanced up to his face. The lantern fire was now glinting in the glassy sheen of his eyes, and his brows pulled together.

“...Hop?”

Suddenly tears began to fall. He bit his lip, trying to hold them back, but more escaped as he sniffled. A breath left her lips as she watched her best friend sitting there in the lantern light. Her hand instinctively shot to him, she delicately wrapped her arms around him, and lowered his head onto her chest. He cried quietly into her shirt as she stroked through his hair. Dolly wasn’t sure how long they sat like that, but it really didn’t matter. She just wished she could wrap her entire body around him, to hold him together, so he wouldn’t look so broken like that. She wanted to protect him with her entire essence like he had for her so many times.

“It’s just been so hard,” he whispered into her shirt. “All of it. What Bede said and switching up my team so much, all that with you and Raihan, even the stupid Beartic today… and mainly… It's been so hard growing up and not having Lee there for me. I feel like I only know the person on the screen, the Champion Leon, and not my big brother. I know he’s always busy since he’s the Champion, but I just wish… I just wish I knew him better, and I wish he wanted to know me better.”

Tears pricked her eyes as she hugged him against her.

“I just thought that if I…” Hop continued. “If I could become a strong Trainer, if I got to the Championship match, if I could beat him, he would be proud of me. And then he’d finally care about me and he would stay.”

“What do you mean?”

He sniveled into her shirt again. 

“Whenever he would come home, he would never stay long,” Hop said. “Then as I got older he came to visit less and less… I just figured it was because I wasn’t good enough or strong enough or interesting enough,”

“Oh, Hop,” Dolly sighed as she pulled him closer. “That wasn’t your fault, not at all, and he does care about you. You’re his favorite person in the world, whenever I’m with him he talks about you.”

Another stretch of silence filled the tent, only to be broken when Hop sniffled again. 

“And then with you too,” Hop said. “When we fought in Circhester and you just… left…”

Hop let out another sob and curled against her.

“I just thought, ‘Oh great, I ruined another relationship by being total rubbish.’ And after Spikemuth when you told me to leave you alone, I just felt so… helpless. Like it felt the same as how I felt with Lee, like no matter what I did I couldn’t get you to come back and stay,”

Dolly wiped the tears from her own eyes.

“Is that why you kept asking me to stay after that Perrserker?”

Hop nodded against her chest. Dolly gently combed through his hair and shook her head.

“I’m so sorry, Hop, I had no idea. I never meant to make you feel abandoned like that.”

He sniffed again and nodded. 

“It’s okay, you didn’t know. Really it was just that one time. And it just makes me wonder…” he continued. “Would beating Lee and being Champion even fix anything? If I beat him, then I’ll become just as busy as he was, and maybe I wouldn’t have time for him, and he wouldn’t have time for me. It’s been so confusing lately…”

He slowly sat up, and Dolly rested a hand on his cheek. 

“I mean I love Pokémon and I want to be around them but…” Hop said quietly. “What if I don’t actually want to be the Champion?”

He looked so forlorn, with his slumped shoulders and pink, puffy eyes. Dolly wiped a tear off his cheek with her thumb.

“What do you mean?” she asked. “I thought that was your life goal?”

Hop seemed to look far into the distance as he answered.

“I just… I don’t know, Dolls. I mean it’s all of that with Lee, but I’m also confused with what I want in life. I love being with Pokémon and I think I’m good at understanding them, but I don’t feel that fire in my body that you and Lee talk about so much.”

He sighed again and his shoulders drooped. 

“I enjoy it, sure, and I’m getting better at battling, but I don’t know if… if it’s my passion. I thought I would have felt it by now, that fire that you two always talk about but… I just don’t.”

Dolly watched as his eyes seemed to gaze beyond her, into miles and memories she had never seen. 

“I’m this close, so I’ll see it through, but I’m just not as sure as I once was. If I’m not the Champion, I don’t know what I’ll do because I’ve never thought about anything else until now.”

Dolly sighed, watching her forlorn friend look to the ground again. She would do absolutely anything to never see that despair on his face. She held his head against her again.

“I’m so sorry, Hop. You said that about Leon back in Circhester, and even in Stow-on-Side, but I’m sorry I didn’t know how much this was weighing on you. I’m sorry both Leon and I haven’t paid attention to your feelings… I know I’ve been so wrapped up in my own.”

He nodded against her chest and sniffled again. 

“You’re here now, and that’s what matters.”

Her brows furrowed and she hugged him tighter. 

“And I always will be, promise. If you don’t become Champion, then I’ll do whatever I can to help you find that passion. Because I know how it feels to not have it, and how fulfilling it is to finally find it, and I want that for you.”

They sat there a little longer, and Dolly rubbed his back until Hop’s breathing finally softened. After a while, he heaved a deep sigh, and lifted his head. His puffy eyes gazed at her in the lantern light, and a soft smile spread across his lips.

“Thank you, Dolls. Really.”

She smiled and reached her hand up to cup his face. Her fingers lightly stroked through the hair by his ear, and her thumb grazed over his cheekbone.

“I love you, Hop. Thank you for trusting me and thank you for telling me all of this. I’ll do whatever it takes for you to find that passion too.”

His eyes widened. 

“...What did you say?”

“I said ‘thanks for telling me all that.’”

“No, before that.”

“‘Thanks for trusting me’?”

“Before that.”

Dolly’s brows furrowed and she dropped her hand.

“Uh, something about passion?”

“You… you said you loved me.”

Hm. Shit. She did, didn’t she.

“W-well I do, you’re my best friend. Of course I… um… of course I love you.”

His brows pulled together. 

“…Friend.” Hop repeated. “Right.”

Dolly’s response rose in her throat, only to be pushed down again when she swallowed. The lantern light beside them cast a warm orangish glow around them, and although it softened everything else in the tent, it seemed to sharpen the glint of gold in Hop’s eyes.

Half of her would have given anything to know what he was thinking, when he looked at her like that. The other half of her wanted him to turn around and not look at her like that at all, and the other _other_ half of her just, like, really wanted to hug him again.

Dolly forced her response back out.

“Now, let’s get you patched up, shall we?” she chirped as she reached for the supplies again. “Can’t have you getting an infection or anything.”

She gingerly uncapped the disinfectant, spread some over her fingers, and reached towards him. It was like she was resisting the pull of a magnet when she hesitated an inch away. Hop leaned towards her, her fingertips whispered over his skin, and the temperature in the tent rose a few degrees.

She could feel him watching her as her fingers quivered over his chest. Hop sat patiently, still watching her, and he leaned towards her another inch every minute. Her hands moved swiftly over his soft skin, and Dolly tried to focus on her work instead of how he felt under her hands. When her arm started to ache, Dolly shuffled closer, settled herself between his knees, and the temperature in the tent rose a few degrees. 

It was like she was sitting a foot too close to the hearth, and his heat radiated around her. Hop was always warmer than most, and Dolly was always colder than most, though that equilibrium shifted every time she touched him. She tried to steady herself, but when his heart thrummed beneath her hands, she paused and glanced up. She pursed her lips, that heat crept onto her cheeks, and her eyes darted away.

“Hop, stop staring at me,” she finally grumbled out. “You’re making me feel weird about touching your chest this much.”

The pull of the magnet intensified, the hearth blazed hotter, and the temperature in the tent rose a few degrees when Hop breathed his response.

“You’re so beautiful.”

She froze in her reach for the bandage roll. 

“Q-quit teasing,” she muttered, though her stumbling words and stumbling fingers betrayed the assurance in her demand.

“I’m not.”

And the temperature in the tent rose a few more degrees.

Dolly asked Hop to hold the end of the bandage roll against his chest so she could properly wrap it around. He did, though his fingers slid over her wrist, over her hand, against her palm, between her fingers, until he held the bandage still.

Though his eyes were locked on hers, it was like his gaze was boring into every inch of her skin. That heat burned in her face, burned in her throat, burned in her body, as she leaned over him to wrap the bandage around him, and suddenly his breath was hot on her neck. Her heart was pounding, her nerves electrified, as his lips scarcely grazed the air over her skin, barely hovered beneath her jaw. He breathed out again, and she could almost feel how her pupils dilated.

Dolly paused.

Was it getting hot in there? She was feeling pretty hot. Was the fire in her lantern too hot? That must be it. Perhaps it had a lower setting. Maybe a colder fire setting. Really just something less… hot.

Dolly was still a little woozy when she sat back, and it was like the heat of his breath was locked onto her neck. She tried to rub it off on her shoulder, only for her hair to stick. Hop was leaning closer, and his shoulders and his chest and his arms and his hands heated the space around them, fueled the incessantly rising temperature in her cheeks. His eyes flit from her eyes to her mouth when she smoothed down the ridges of the wrapping, and then again when her fingers grazed over his lean muscle. When she pulled strands of her hair from her neck, his hooded gaze dragged down from her eyes, to her lips, to her neck, to the hemline of his shirt lying loose on her chest.

Her distracted hands slipped and grazed low on his back, and when her fingers slid over the dimples near the base of his spine, Hop started breathing harder. The fire between them was palpable when her hand curved along his side to feel along the fringe of the wrapping, and it flared hotter when Hop let slip a soft moan. When she met his gaze again, his eyebrows were furrowed, his pupils were dilated, and there was a hunger in his eyes that she had never seen before.

The temperature in the tent rose a few degrees.

Dolly glanced down, turned her head, and strands of platinum hair wafted around her face like a curtain. It was like time had stopped when Hop traced along her jaw, along her cheekbone, to tuck the strands of hair behind her ear. When her eyes met his again, he wet his lips.

With each beat of her heart, her eyes flicked from hooded eyes and his mouth, and Dolly swallowed hard when his fingers brushed over her legs. His hands slowly, painstakingly slowly, trailed up her thighs, up her hips, to hold her waist, and he gently pulled her towards him. The path his fingers made burned her skin, and her hands trembled against his chest until he pulled them up and guided them over his shoulders. Again, her fingers pushed into the lines of muscle on his back, and the remainder of the bandage roll was strewn on the floor as Dolly hesitantly curled a hand into his hair.

Dolly struggled to keep her eyes open when he leaned another inch closer. It was an inch every second, it was another degree that flared from his fingerprints, from his gaze, when his eyes flitted to hers, then down to her lips again. She was drawn to him, and he to her, as they sat only a few inches away. His eyelids lowered as he leaned another inch closer.

Inch by inch. 

Degree by degree. 

The temperature in the tent was rising, as was the temperature that flared in her veins. She could hardly control it as his thumb brushed over her lips, and the tension within her was spiking when he tilted her chin up.

Another inch closer. 

Another degree hotter.

She gazed through her eyelashes to see his eyes closed and his lips slightly parted.

Yeah wow it was definitely hot in there maybe if she didn’t sit right next to this darn lantern that would help.

Dolly stood and stepped around him. After a tense few seconds, Hop breathed out a sigh, and he rubbed at his face as she tied the final knot in the back. She watched his shoulders move as he adjusted, feeling for himself the security of the wrapping.

“Done. Now it doesn’t suck,” she said as she wiped her hands on her leggings. Hm yeah she was sweating a lot, it sure was hot in there. Darn lantern.

She stepped around him again and started tidying up the mess she made, though she pursed her lips when she still met Hop’s eyes every time she looked up.

 _“What?”_ she laughed as her shoulders slumped. He really needed to stop looking at her like that, she was already on the verge of a heat stroke.

“Dolls…” he breathed. “I want… C-can I...” 

After a tense pause, he heaved out the rest of the breath he was holding. 

“I mean... yeah this wrapping is a lot better now.”

“Well the bar was pretty low,” she said as she bundled the old bandages into a ball. “Now let’s get some sleep, we’ve got some big days coming up. You should drink some water, too, it’s a billion degrees in here.”

As Dolly motioned to toss the bundle to the side of the tent, Hop leaned toward her again. He stared into her eyes for a second, cupped her face, and gently pressed his lips to her cheek. His eyelashes tickled her skin as his kiss lingered.

“I love you too, Dolls,” he said quietly. His lips were still grazing her skin as he whispered. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

After a moment, and then a moment after that, Dolly squeaked out a ‘you betcha’ and finally clicked off the lantern.


	24. Hop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I just gotta say I waited 17 chapters for that Wooloo joke. Talk about satisfying.
> 
> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 24 - Hop**

She had no idea how long it had been since her and Hop’s conversation, but Dolly was nowhere close to falling asleep. Thoughts bubbled through her mind like a rushing river, sweeping over the banks quickly and consistently.

Why did Hop keep looking at her like that? What was he going to say? Could he… what? Was it really just about the wrapping? And why was she so sweaty?

She turned over with a frustrated sigh.

Her cheek still tingled from where he kissed her. Dolly squeezed her eyes shut and tried to shove out the feeling of Hop's lips on her skin, tried to shove out the memory of how he touched her so gently, tried to shove out the image of his hooded eyes in the warm glow of the lantern fire. She thought instead of how he said he loved her… but she said she loved him. As a friend, of course, and he probably also meant it completely platonically. She was sure of it. Just because Jackson or Rosa said they loved her didn’t mean they were _in_ love with her, which was an important distinction. Otherwise she would be making plans to marry all of her Pokémon and her mum, if it was based on the fact that they all loved each other. So yeah.

Dolly turned over again and her mind drifted back to Motostoke. Lacey said the same thing when she held her in her arms for the last time. She said she loved her, and then she thanked her for the adventure. That was so long ago, and even more adventure had taken place since then. The faces of all her Pokémon drifted through her mind as she heaved out a sigh.

She missed them. What would Posey have evolved into? She may have been a Vaporeon, or an Espeon, or maybe even a Sylveon. Mateo would have definitely been a Lucario by now, that much was for certain. Dolly smirked at the thought of how much chaos he and Jackson would have gotten into in their final evolved forms. She also vaguely wondered what color aura he would have identified in her when she was around Hop. Even though he was just as rambunctious as Jackson, he had a very precise wit. He and Rouge would probably have gotten along well.

What would Fay have been like? She’d have two Dragon Pokémon on her team if she evolved into a Noivern. She barely got to know Fay, since she passed so close to Posey. When they did have time to talk, she was kind, shy, and surprisingly intelligent. Dolly wondered what Pip would have been like, too. Even catching her was a fascinating exploit, did she always do backflips and beatbox about attacks? How would she and Theodore have gotten along? Probably terribly. Either way, a Psychic Pokémon would be a nice addition to the team. A Bug and Electric-type too, if Sap were still around. Pip and Sap could have also made quite the duo, with Sap’s affection for music and Pip’s habit of beatboxing. None of her Pokémon liked to cuddle with her as much as Sap did, especially when she was a little Charjabug. Half of her team now were too big and uncomfortable, and the other half grumbled about it. Theodore was alright, but he never stopped talking. Same with Rosa, and she was too small.

Then, she thought back farther. What would Faline have been like? How would her first ever Pokémon, her Deerling, have fit into her rag-tag team now? She would have probably been a Sawsbuck. But then again, would she have ever met any of her team now, had she not lost Faline in the first place? Would she have ever moved to Galar? Met Hop, Leon, Sonia, and all of her Pokémon team? Would she have ever had those visions? Heard the call? Would she still be the Shield of Galar? Would that voice have still told her to save the region? These memories and questions swirled in her mind, and sleep eluded her still.

She couldn’t sleep because of these thoughts, sure, but also because she was so friggin’ cold.

That oddly hot heat from the lantern clicked off a while ago, and as soon as Hop settled into sleep, her temperature dropped fifty degrees and she was back to feeling like a cold-blooded Helioptile. It didn’t help that Jackson had ripped off her blanket in his sleep and rolled to the other side of the tent. Although Dolly had tried in vain multiple times to retrieve it, not understanding why a Fire-type would be so adamant about a blanket, his sleep Double Kicks were enough to keep her at bay.

So, instead, she lay there shivering like a Snorunt. The rest of her clothes were sopping wet since she stupidly shoved her wet shirt and jacket in her bag, and Dolly humbly accepted her fate of being stuck to the floor of this tent forever, glued to it from her dried and frozen sweat.

She squeezed her eyes closed, though they kept twitching. Maybe her eyelashes would freeze together and she’d become blind. She wondered how well she’d be able to battle if she couldn’t see anything. Probably fine, honestly, she couldn’t see much during her and Raihan’s battle because of the sandstorm, and even during Melony’s it was hard to see from all the rain and-

Her train of thought halted when something smacked her face. She froze, then felt what was so unceremoniously thrown at her. Her fingers gripped into the soft fabric and Dolly ripped the pillow off and rubbed at her now-throbbing nose.

“What the _hell_ was that for?!” she sneered, whipping her head to Hop. His eyes glinted at her mischievously under his thick blanket.

“Can you stop chattering your teeth? I’m trying to sleep. You probably wouldn’t be so cold if you ate more and had some fat on you.”

“Oh, yes, of course, let me just gain fifty pounds in the next ten seconds,” she sneered as she chucked the pillow back at him.

“Ow, Dolls! You hit me in the nose!”

“You hit _me_ in the nose!”

“You’re going to pay for that.”

Dolly tried to muffle her squeal when Hop started crawling towards her.

“Get away from me!” she whispered harshly as she flung her own pillow at him.

Again, it hit him square in the face. Now he had two pillows, and Dolly was scrambling around for more ammunition. Maybe she could throw Jackson at him. Her hand brushed over the left-over roll of bandages, and she chucked that too.

“How are you so strong?!” he hissed as he threw it back at her. “Your arms are toothpicks!”

“It’s called _lean muscle_ , I could probably throw you, too!”

“Oh I’d like to see that,” he scoffed as he whipped another pillow at her. 

It knocked Dolly over onto the floor of the tent and before she could sit up again, Hop flopped on top of her and knocked the air out of her lungs.

“Have _you_ gained fifty pounds?!” she wheezed as she tried to shove him off.

“Come on, thought you were stronger than that? Engage your core.”

Despite her grunting and heaving, Hop was like a cinder block on top of her. His chuckling made her seethe, and her scrambling didn’t have much effect, either.

“Just admit defeat, Dolls.”

“ _Never._ ”

She would rather freeze to death before waving the white flag to this idiot. She heaved in one more breath, then, a devious plan formed in her mind. Dolly gently reached her hands up, and trailed her fingers over his sides. He shot back with a screech, and Dolly grinned.

Hop was the most ticklish person she’d ever met, and she knew _all_ his weak spots. 

“You know too much!” he whispered harshly as he scrambled backwards to his blanket pile.

She tried to get at all of said weak spots, though it was awfully challenging when he kept thrashing around like that.

“Hop, be quiet! If you wake up Jackson he’ll kill us both!”

“Well _sorry_ I’ve got a crazy lady coming at me!”

“That’s what you get for chucking a pillow at my face!”

Dolly reached for him again, only for his palm to launch up and hit her in the jaw. She grunted, tumbled back, and stars flashed behind her eyelids when her head hit the tent floor.

“Oh, Dolls, sorry!”

He quickly crawled over, pulled her up, and wrapped his arms around her.

“Sorry, sorry,” he muttered again, squeezing her tighter. “Are you okay?”

“ _Barely_ ,” she sighed as she melodramatically flopped her head on his shoulder. “I guess that’s what I get for using your greatest weakness against you.”

“Yeah and it doesn’t help that I’m absolutely ripped, I’m surprised I didn’t break your jaw.”

“Sure Hop, whatever you say.”

Hop chuckled, then delicately reached up to her head.

“Is your head okay?”

Dolly nodded, heaved out a sigh, and let her eyes close. Hop started to lean back, only to have Dolly pull him against her again.

“Wait.”

The warmth was radiating off him. Dolly unintentionally let out a sigh as her body temperature rose slightly, and her shivers started to waiver. She pressed her cold hands against him, and her brows furrowed as the warmth slowly bled into her fingers. She breathed out another sigh as she shivered against him.

“Geez, you really are freezing,” Hop said.

“Yeah well I’ve been laying here without a blanket and there’s a blizzard outside.”

She let out another breath, and her body trembled as the heat finally started to return to her.

“You’re so warm,” she breathed as she tried to curl into him as much as she could.

He chuckled and rubbed his hands over her arms, then curled his legs around her as well. She was still shivering, and after a moment, he sighed too.

“I’ve got a blanket, you know,” Hop mumbled against her ear.

“I know.”

“...”

“What’s that got to do with anything? I don’t have one, that’s the problem, remember?”

“Dolls…” he sighed. His breath ruffled her hair.

She peeled off him, only slightly, just enough to look at him. Though it was awfully dark, it seemed his cheeks were stained darker.

“I mean… we could… share,” Hop muttered as he glanced to the side.

“It’s not that big though?”

Hop sighed again and muttered something under his breath.

“Okay, we could both fit under it if we… were… close.”

“Well yeah I guess so.”

“...”

“...”

Hop rubbed at his face again.

“I meant we could both fit if we…”

“...”

“If we... um… cuddled.”

“...”

“Or something. Together. With me. F-for warmth, I mean.”

“...Oh.”

“...”

“...Cuddled?”

“Yeah.”

“...Hm.”

“...”

“...”

“I-I mean, you’re… you’re really cold and, and um, and you don’t have a blanket…”

“...Yeah that’s true.”

“...”

“...”

“...so…”

“...”

“...”

“...I, um… yeah, I guess that could work.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...Hop?”

“Yes, right, right,” Hop said, jolting into focus. 

He unraveled himself from her and shuffled to his blanket lying haphazardly on the floor. As soon as he moved, it was like her temperature dropped another billion degrees. He fussed for a moment, then lifted the blanket for her.

Dolly hesitated as she looked to Hop’s face, to his outstretched arm, to his torso. It certainly was inviting, and she certainly was cold. The thought of lying next to him like that though was a bit much to handle. Wouldn’t it be weird? They had plenty of sleepovers before and she never thought anything of it, but something about doing it now was different. 

It was something about the way he was looking at her. It was something about the way she kept noticing little things about him, ever since the Glimwood Tangle. Things like how his arms seemed much more defined than she remembered, or she was always more aware of where his hands were, or how her skin tingled wherever he touched. Ever since they woke up together in that stupid forest, she didn’t want to think about how much she wanted to think about it.

He plopped his arm down. 

“I’m not trying to make it weird! Really!” Hop said as his cheeks flushed a deeper red. 

“I know!”

“S-so come on, then,” Hop muttered.

She delicately crawled over, then beneath the blanket with him. He closed the distance between them and laid the blanket over top of her, enveloping her in warmth. She hoped he couldn’t hear her heart, as it felt like it was ready to burst out of her chest. The scent of campfire smoke and honeysuckle stained the air, along with a tinge of… was that… was it the blanket or was Hop wearing cologne…?

The blizzard blustered outside, and Dolly was still shivering as she rubbed the goosebumps over her arms. Hop sighed from behind her. 

“Come on, come closer, you’re shaking like mad.”

“I’m fine,”

She felt a rustling from behind her. 

“Please, Dolls,” he said gently. “Are you mad at me? Are you scared of me?”

She paused, then let out a sigh. 

“No,” she said as she turned to him. “No, of course not, Hop. I really do feel safe around you. Like… really safe.” 

Her eyes darted to the side. Although she’d never say it aloud, she trusted this idiot with her life. 

“I’m just awkward with things like this,”

“What, like accepting help?” Hop whispered.

“Yeah. Never been too good at it...”

“But you’re getting better. Most people would jump at the chance to let such a big, strong, super handsome man like me warm them up,” he grinned, waggling his eyebrows.

She resisted the urge to smack him with her pillow again. 

“You’re not making this any easier.”

“You’re shivering like mad, and I want to help!” he said enthusiastically. “Let this be lesson number one in Dolly accepting help from her friends.” 

He invited her in again when he held up his arm, and Dolly rolled her eyes and smiled despite herself. She inched closer to Hop and turned so her back was to his chest with a few inches of distance between them. Hop gently laid his arm over her, then blanket along with it.

“Is this okay?” he asked softly.

“Um... Yeah.” 

He was her best mate, and he was helping her out. Yeah, that was it. Cuddling was just, like, a really long hug. This was normal between friends, right? Hop was enthusiastic anyway, so he probably did this with all his friends. Actually, the thought of that made her grimace. 

All of it was very confusing especially since, as much as she didn’t want to admit it, ever since her escapade with Raihan she wondered at least once what that would have been like with Hop pinning her against the bed like that instead. Or maybe she wondered about it more than once. Not that she wondered about it. Because that would be weird. But if she _had_ wondered about it, then his scent and smile and skin so close to her certainly wasn’t helping her to continue not wondering about it. 

And how he was looking at her earlier in the warm yellow glow of the lantern light and calling her beautiful and his breath hitting her neck and him being shirtless and staring at her with those hooded eyes and touching her like that and licking his lips and kissing her cheek… yeah all that didn’t help either.

“Great! Don’t mind me, then,”

Her head thunked against the ground when he pulled her pillow out from under her.

“Hop?!” she hissed. “What’re you-” 

“Just chill out, hold on,”

She squinted her eyes when he flung her pillow on top of his and he nestled into it.

“Did you just do all of that to get my pillow?! If you throw something at me again I swear I’ll-”

“I said hold on, let the master work.”

She let out a squeak when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her up so she was laying against the pillow with him. He turned, and Dolly’s heart pounded as he hovered over her when he reached to adjust the blanket over them. He laid against her, flung a long leg over her thighs, tucked one arm under their pillows, and the other snaked around high on her waist. His hand pressed against her ribs as he pulled her against him. 

“Aw, poor Dolls, you’re so cold,” he whispered, concern laced in his voice.

Hop let out a sad hum and curled around her more tightly. It was as if he had practiced these motions a thousand times as he tugged her closer against him and nestled his head into the crook of her neck.

“Okay, g’night, Dolls.”

“Uh. Goodnight.”

As she began to warm again, she realized that this was… unfortunately incredibly close to what she imagined it would be like. Not that she imagined what it would look like or be like or feel like with Hop’s body against hers. Because that would be weird. She shook out the memory of his closed eyes and parted lips.

That memory prodded at her as she tried to think of sleeping and only sleeping. Or breakfast the next morning. Or the Gym Challenge. Or really anything that wasn’t Hop’s leg slung over her thighs or how he so easily tangled himself around her or how his hand was so high up on her ribs that if he moved it up and over an inch she’d have to slap him.

As she lay looking at the ceiling, she was also incredibly aware of Hop’s breath hot on her neck and his lips so close to her skin. She tried to think of anything else. She could think about… Dirt. Or… Taxes. Jackson picking his nose. Mowing the lawn. Bede’s stupid face. Cologne. Nope. Her mum’s Munchlax. Packing peanuts. Math. TM21. Eyelashes. Jawline. Nope. Butterscotch candy. Uhh. Needlepoint. Fossilized Fish. Doorknobs. Pungent Roots. Muscles. Hands. Lips. Nope. Nope. Nope. Anything. Else. But. Those.

“How am I supposed to sleep with you on top of me?” Dolly finally grumbled, giving into the ultimate distraction as heat in her face flared again. She hoped she didn’t sound as flustered as she felt.

Hop lifted his head, and Dolly swallowed hard as he hovered over her again and stared into her eyes. His hair was tousled still, his eyes were hooded, and this was now _exactly_ what she imagined it would be like if she had imagined what this would be like. Not that she did. Or had. Nor would she nicely tuck this image away for later.

“Am I too heavy?” he asked. 

“That’s… not what I meant,” she said, though she was unable to meet his gaze.

The pressure was kind of nice, not that she would admit it. She kind of liked the pressure and the warmth and the weight of his body lying on half of her. It made her feel like a little warm marshmallow, snuggled securely as she was pressed under the weight of a dense and incredibly attractive graham cracker.

“Just relax, Dolls,” he said softly as he dropped to his elbow. “You’re really tense. I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

Well she sure hadn’t thought about this yet. His hair was tousled, his muscles were flexing as he held himself up, his long eyelashes were framing those half-lidded golden eyes, his hand was holding high on her ribs, he was balancing on one knee that was set between her thighs and his elbow beside her head as he hovered over her, his face and lips and smile were only inches away and he was looking into her eyes like _that_. 

Relax. Yeah. Like that was possible right now.

“I know you won’t, but it’s just… I’m just…”

“I can move! I thought this would be the easiest way to help you warm up, is all,” 

“W-well it is, I-I’m just-”

“Maybe you could sleep next to Dubwool if that would be better? I just… I thought you might like snuggling with… um… with… w-well I know you try with all your Pokémon and none of them let you, so I figured you would like it if it were… um… with me.”

Well trying to cuddle with her Pokémon certainly didn’t make her feel like _this._ Why was ‘snuggle’ such a stupid word? Why did _he_ have to like snuggling so much? She knew physical affection was his favorite type, but being on the receiving end of it in the dark of the tent when just the two of them were awake was… dizzying. Even though they were just friends.

“N-no,” she said. “This is fine, I’m just-”

Hop opened his mouth to interrupt her again.

“I’m just feeling overwhelmed, okay?” she huffed and finally glared up at him. “H-having you… s-so close to me and leaning over me like this is… it’s just really a lot.”

“Do you not like it...?” he asked softly as his eyebrows pulled together.

“I didn’t say that...” she grumbled as her cheeks lit up. “I just said I was overwhelmed.”

Hop’s eyes flitted around her face, and after a moment, he leaned another inch closer. 

“...So you _do_ like it?” he asked cautiously.

Whatever Butterfree that was in charge in her stomach had called forth a battalion, which was now furiously swarming.

“W-well you are... really warm,” she grumbled as she glanced away again. “S-so, um, I guess I don’t _not_ like it...”

Hop wasn’t replying, so Dolly glanced up again. He was an inch closer, and those Butterfree were all simultaneously Gigantimaxing when he looked at her like that. His hand was hesitantly toying with a few strands of her hair, and his eyes were lidded again. Dolly watched him swallow as his gaze stayed fixed on her eyes.

Another second passed and he still hadn’t responded.

“...Hop?” she finally squeaked.

“Right, yes, sorry,” Hop said, jolting into focus. “You’re just, y-you’re… I… Um, here.”

Hop laid down against her and again tucked himself back into place. His warmth was seeping into her body, and Dolly breathed out another sigh. Her nerves were like electricity when his voice vibrated against her neck.

“Try to relax, I’m just helping you warm up, remember? That’s all.”

“You need to relax too then,” Dolly muttered.

“Yes, right, yes. You’re right.”

A few minutes passed, and Dolly was still trying to relax. Her breathing was starting to slow as Hop nestled against her. 

“Can’t let my tiny Pecha berry freeze to death when I’m over here like Groudon,” he mumbled after a while.

At the sound of his voice, Dolly jolted into full focus. After she processed his sentence, she whispered back.

“What’d you call me?”

“Hm?” 

“What did you just say?”

“I said I’m ‘like Groudon.’”

“Before that.”

“‘I’m helping you warm up’?”

“After that.”

Hop shifted up again. 

“Something about you relaxing?”

Dolly’s brow furrowed as she gazed up at him.

“You called me… um… _your…_ little Pecha berry.”

He squinted his eyes, opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again.

“Hm. Shit. I did, didn’t I.”

Dolly breathed out a laugh as his cheeks darkened.

“My mum calls me that, you can’t call me that too,”

And with that, he plopped back down and nestled against her again.

“Mmkay, my little Tyranitar.”

She heaved out a melancholy sigh and when he laughed, it rumbled through her entire body. Hop wrapped himself closer to her, and her eyes fluttered close as his warmth spread over her arms, her chest, her legs. Dolly paused, then cautiously settled herself against him, and tucked her head under his chin. Hop let out a satisfied hum.

She supposed Rosa called her ‘my Dolly’ and Theodore called her ‘my Lady,’ so maybe that was just something friends did? Just like snuggling. Normal. Yep, this was completely normal. Completely normal among friends. She was sure of it. Perhaps the more she repeated that in her head, the more she could distract herself from the explosion of Butterfree in her gut as he adjusted on top of her, then finally relaxed against her. 

With his entire body wrapped around her like that, Dolly was incredibly conscious of how good he smelled and that he was so warm and soft and sturdy and her skin tingled as his arm curled around her waist and now it was distracting but also comforting and there was that blizzard and wind outside but she was so safe and kind of hot now and he had really strong hands but he always held her so gently and suddenly Dolly wondered how come snogging with a half-naked Raihan was less nerve-wracking than this? 

Not that this was nerve-wracking. Because it wasn’t. Because they were just friends and this was normal among friends.

“Perfect fit,” he whispered against her ear. 

Well it sure was a good thing they were just friends. Otherwise that would have been incredibly seductive and overwhelming and probably make her head explode. So it was a good thing he meant that completely platonically, right?

Right.

Dolly had every intention to let out a strong and affirmative ‘yes,’ but instead let out an unfortunate squeak. Maybe she could find a nice snow pile to crawl into and peacefully die of shame. Her heart was clattering against her ribcage. Or was that his? 

“You’re tense again, Dolls,” he whispered.

His voice had the hint of gravel, and Dolly squeezed her eyes closed as she tried to think about dirt again.

“You’re warmer, though, right?”

“Yes, Hop.”

“Okay. Good.”

“...”

“Goodnight, Dolls,”

“Goodnight.”

After another few minutes, Dolly was still tense. She felt Hop sigh, then after another moment he hesitantly lifted his hand. He brushed her bangs off her face, and cautiously combed his fingers through her hair. Then, it was like a switch was flipped, and Dolly let out a satisfied hum as she melted against him. She barely caught him muttering a ‘...huh,’ and Dolly could hardly open her eyes when he combed through the hair by her ear. When he stopped, she moved his hand back, and she could hear his smile when he muttered another ‘huh…’ 

He wove his fingers through her hair again, and it was like she was a warm and contented puddle, oozing against him as easily as breathing. In her half-conscious state, Dolly couldn’t help but smile as she thought that he was so warm, and she was so tired, and that he was so safe, and she felt so protected. His warmth and arms and blanket tucked around her like that helped her consciousness slip, and Dolly let out a final sigh as she drifted to sleep.

“I wish I had warmer clothes to give you,” Hop said after a while. “But that’s the only extra shirt I had and I know your other clothes were wet but you… um… you… do you feel weird wearing my clothes? I know it’s kind of big, but you look… um… really...”

“...”

“...cute...”

“...”

“...wearing my clothes, I mean… and in general...”

“...”

“Was that weird? Right, probably…”

Hop sighed and hugged her a little tighter. He was cautiously brushing through the ends of her hair as he continued.

“But you really are so beautiful. You’re so encouraging, and I’ve never been able to talk to anyone like I can talk to you.”

“...”

“And… and you said it earlier but… being this close to you…”

“...”

“It… it, um…”

“...”

“It’s overwhelming for me too. B-but… in a good way. If that makes sense. I, um, I like it.”

“...”

“I like being close to you.”

Hop sighed again.

“Dolls, I think… I think I might be in, um…” 

“...”

“...Dolls?”

“...hmng?”

“Are you sleeping?”

“I _was_.” 

“Did you hear any of that?”

“No, I kind of dozed off after you said goodnight.”

“...Oh.”

“Why?”

“Um, n-no reason. Just... go back to sleep.”

“That’s hard to do when you keep talking,” 

“Right, yes, you’re right.”

Dolly was drifting off again as Hop combed through her hair.

“Is this okay?” he asked.

“Mmhmm.”

“Are you comfortable?” 

“Mmmhmmm,” she hummed as she nestled closer to him.

“Good. Me too.”

“...”

“Are you warm enough?” 

“Mmhmm.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Positive?”

“ _Yes._ ”

“Good.”

“...”

“I… I love you, Dolls. A-as my best mate, I mean.”

“I love you too, Hop,” she mumbled as she curled against him.

She could feel him smile and Hop finally seemed to relax. He held her closer and breathed out another sigh.

“Okay, um, goodnight,”

“Goodnight, Hop.”

Then, just as Dolly was on the brink of sleep, he pressed his lips against her cheek. This kiss was longer, softer, and his eyelashes tickled. And then he did it again, kissing an inch closer to the corner of her mouth. And then, he did it a third time, another inch closer, and his lips lingered against her skin.

“ _Hop._ ”

“What?”

“You’re _really_ not helping.”

“Right, sorry,” he said, and he moved his head back to his spot on the pillow.

They lay there a while as their bodies slowly melded into each other like fresh sheets find every crevice when thrown over a bed. Dolly was on the brink of sleep again when she heard Hop whisper.

“So, earlier when I said I was super handsome you didn’t disagree,” he whispered against her ear. “Does that mean you think I’m super handsome?”

She elbowed him in the ribs. 

“ _Go to sleep_.”

~~

Now _this_ was something she could get used to. It was like the rays of the morning sun were stroking through her hair, tucking it behind her ear, moving her bangs from her face, softly brushing it off her neck. It combed through gently and Dolly sighed in contentment, nestling closer to the heat. It was like her whole body was oozing into the earth as she relaxed further. 

The pressure moved to her back and rubbed in big, slow circles. Hmm. Yeah, maybe she could be a morning person if every morning were like this, and the embrace of sleep descended like a fog over her again. Something shifted beneath her, there was movement from what she had been holding all night, as her senses began to sharpen. With a small grunt she hugged it tighter. 

The circles on her back resumed and she sighed again, melting into the touch. Pressure delicately trailed the length of her spine a few times, stroking up and down as she eased further into relaxation. Yeah, she could stay like this for the rest of her life. When it stopped, she let out another whine and it was like the ground beneath her shook with a chuckle. Her eyes shot open and she lifted her head, looked down, and was face to face with Hop.

“Mornin’,” he hummed.

Dolly shot back in shock with a yelp and tumbled out of the blankets. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she realized that _that_ was her ray of sunshine, who was still smiling softly at her, still groggy from sleep, and had half of his hair sticking straight up.

“How did you sleep?” Hop asked as he lifted himself up on his elbows. “Real comfy, yeah?”

She didn’t know the last time she had such a good night’s sleep, honestly. She shoved down the part of her that longed to crawl back to him and resume where they were laying, to curl back onto him and have him stroke through her hair like that again, rub her back like that again, to lay with someone so safe, sturdy, warm, stay there forever and feel his laugh between her bones.

“I was,” Hop said as he stretched. Her eyes followed the imprints her clothes and blankets left all over his skin, and she tore her eyes away when he looked at her again.

“Real comfortable, I mean. You’re real cuddly when you’re half asleep, you know that?” Hop said, still smiling softly at her.

She mentally smacked herself. Just like a Dreepy on a Dragapult. 

“Yeah, um, sorry,” Dolly mumbled as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt.

“No! No, it’s okay, I um… I thought it was cute,” Hop said quietly. “I didn’t mind it.”

“Oh,” Dolly said quietly. When she glanced back up at him, he was still gazing at her.

“And… you like it when I play with your hair, don’t you?”

When her cheeks flared red, Hop breathed out a laugh.

“I thought so. Every time I do it you just, like, melt.”

“Y-yeah, well… it’s soothing,” Dolly grumbled.

Hop watched as she crossed her arms and glared at the floor. He couldn’t help but smile - she kind of looked like a little angry Jigglypuff, with her brows furrowed and face scrunched.

“Dolls,” Hop said quietly. “You don’t have to be defensive, it’s okay if you like cuddling and physical affection. You don’t have to be tough around me.”

She was still running her fingers over the hem of her shirt, now fighting with herself about how impactful those words were. She had said the very same thing to him the night before, but when she was the ones with the iron walls around her heart, it was awfully challenging to allow herself to let them down. Despite that, though, Hop’s soft knocking, his gentle and understanding touch, was quietly making its way in.

“It was kind of nice,” Hop continued. “Seeing you like that, I mean. It was like you finally let your guard down, just for a little bit.”

Dolly nodded, then heaved out a sigh.

“Well… it’s easier with you… I trust you,” she said quietly.

Hop nodded, and they sat in silence for a while as the morning sun shone through the tent netting. The temperature was warm, comfortable, and the sound of blankets rustling and their sleeping Pokémon wafted through the air. After a moment, he spoke up again.

“You know it’s still early…” Hop said, though the end of his sentence trailed off.

Dolly glanced up at him.

“So?”

“So…” he mumbled. He had readjusted the blankets, and although he wasn’t looking at her, the invitation was apparent when he lifted his blanket and held his arms out.

“Do you like it when I cuddle with you?” Dolly asked cautiously, biting her lip to hold back a grin.

“Well I’m not going to say I _don’t_ like it!” Hop retorted as his face flushed. “S-so are you coming back over here or what?”

Dolly smiled and accepted that invitation, and it didn’t take long before she crawled back, and they tangled together again. Their legs and arms and hesitant smiles intertwined together, and when Dolly laid her head on his chest, they both breathed out a contented sigh. And again, just as Hop predicted, Dolly melted to the touch when he started running his fingers through her hair. 

“This is an interesting fact to learn about you, Dolls,” Hop chuckled.

Dolly could barely open her eyes as she breathed out another sigh.

“Hmm?”

“How quickly this makes you relax,” he said. She could hear the smile in his voice, but she could only grunt in response.

Hop shifted and laid her head against their pillows again. He set his elbow by her head, rested his head on his fist, and combed through the hair by her ear. Dolly still couldn’t really open her eyes, though she could feel him looking at her. The warmth was radiating off him, his weight on her was comforting, and his reverent touch was soothing her into sleep again. He brushed her bangs off her face, ran his fingers down, and brushed his thumb over her cheek. 

“Where did you even learn to do this?” Dolly muttered as she leaned into his touch.

“Unlike some people, I _know_ I like cuddling, so I know what feels nice,” Hop said with a chuckle.

“Use this power wisely, Hop,” she finally mumbled.

He laid against the pillow with her, pulled her closer to his chest, and tangled their legs together. 

“Well… something else, actually,” he started.

“Hm?”

“You talk in your sleep, too.”

“Okay?”

“You… kept saying my name.”

Her eyes shot open.

Nice. Great. Cool. Thank you, unconscious Dolly, for consistently throwing conscious Dolly under the bus.

Hop was still combing through her hair, brushing his thumb over her cheek. There was no escape now, as her body was completely and fully relaxed. She hadn’t realized Hop could form such a genius and devious plot.

“Were you dreaming about me?”

The heat was flaring in her cheeks as she tried to mumble a retort. 

Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. Maybe she dreamed about Wooloo and Yampers frolicking in a flowery field as the rays of sunshine and pink Cutieflies fluttered about. Or maybe she didn’t. Maybe she dreamed about them in the dark of a tent alone with him holding her and touching her and kissing her and pressing against her, just like he was before they fell asleep, and maybe it was a little more than that, maybe he was shirtless again, maybe they were both sweating and panting, maybe his breath was hot on her neck, maybe she liked it when he breathed out her name, but maybe she really did dream about Wooloo and Yampers. Or maybe she didn't. Either way, it wasn’t like she had any intention of spitting _that_ information out any time soon.

“So, is that a yes…?” he asked cautiously, still running his fingers through her hair. “If it is, I wouldn’t mind it.”

Well what was _that_ supposed to mean? Dolly could offer little response, though his face was lying only inches from hers on the pillow.

“I’ve had dreams about you before, too.”

And what was _that_ supposed to mean?! Her eyes widened at the blush creeping up on his cheeks.

“Man I am SWELTERING.”

They froze.

Jackson puffed and rustled around beside them.

“How many times have I told you not to put blankets on me in my sleep, Dolly?”

Maybe if they didn’t move, he wouldn’t see them.

“Dolly? Where-”

The only sound in the tent was Dubwool yawning. Dolly popped her head up to see Jackson, frozen in place as he took in the scene before him.

“ _What_ is he _doing._ ” Jackson growled through his teeth.

“I-It was to keep warm!” she spluttered. “You stole my blankets in the middle of the night! It was out of desperation, I swear!”

Hop waved at Jackson with his fingers.

“You _TOUCHED HER?!”_ he roared. He launched himself at Hop, who with a squeal was already scrambling to the opposite side of the tent.

And before long, Dolly added a second scorched and shredded tent to her inventory.


	25. His Goals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 25 - His Goals**

Hudson tried to keep Jackson’s Poké Ball closed so he wouldn’t keep flashing out of it to mangle Hop, and Rouge had to help freeze Jackson’s Poké Ball closed when the Mudsdale wasn’t strong enough to keep the Cinderace contained.

Hop scrambled his things together, hugged Dolly for a little longer than he probably should have given the circumstances (and finally shot back after Hudson cleared his throat), waved a goodbye, and raced off toward Wyndon. 

“That lad is quite the character,” Hudson chuckled as they watched Hop disappear over the snowy hill.

“Jackson will have to get used to him being around more often since you can’t seem to keep your hands off each other,” Rouge said.

Dolly nearly jumped out of her skin at the words. She whipped around to her smirking Weavile and Mudsdale.

“Yep. You’ve got it bad,” Rouge said with a decisive nod.

“We’re _just friends!”_ Dolly spat as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Are… are you serious?” Rouge asked, raising her eyebrows. “If I had a dollar for every time you said you were ‘just friends,’ I could pay for you to get your glasses fixed, since you apparently can’t see clearly. I can’t be the only one who sees how he looks at you. Hudson? Help me out here.”

Hudson shrugged.

“Gee, thanks for the help,” Rouge said as she rolled her eyes.

Dolly grumbled a retort as she turned again and started plodding toward Wyndon. Some fresh air and a morning walk should be good for her team, and now that Hop was gone, Jackson needed time to cool down. She tossed out the rest of her team and all of them stretched and gratefully embraced the morning sun.

“I swear I’ll kill him,” Jackson huffed as he stomped through the snow. He singed the snow and grass beneath each step.

“Are you talking about Señor Hop?” Rosa asked as she clambered up to ride on Hudson’s head.

“Yeah,” Rouge yawned. “And how Dolly’s head over heels.”

“I’m _not_ head over heels,” she grumbled again. Dolly and her Cinderace made an oddly symmetrical picture, as they both crossed their arms and grumbled about Hop as they stomped through the snow.

“Fine, if you’re so adamant you don’t like him, what’s your type?” Rouge asked as she picked at her fangs.

“I don’t have a type, I’m a human. If I did, I’d probably be like, Grass-type or something.”

“I meant what type of guy, you moron.”

“Oh. I uh… I dunno.”

“I do,” Rosa chirped. “It is tall, dark, and handsome!”

“Huh,” Rouge hummed, scratching her chin. “Tall? Check. Dark? Check. Handsome? Check. Look at that, he checks all three boxes.”

Dolly kicked a ball of ice and tucked her jacket tighter around her. 

“It’s not just physical stuff! I’m not that shallow,” she huffed. “He’d have to be… um… fun to be around…”

“Check!” Rosa chirped.

“...Encouraging.”

“Check,” Hudson nodded.

Dolly’s face was heating up. 

“Funny, loves Pokémon, is nice to me…”

“Check, check, and check,” Rouge finished. “You know if you’re trying to convince me you’re not in love with Hop, you’re really not doing yourself any favors. Why’d you let him stay in your tent? Couldn’t stay away from that cheeky smile?” 

“His tent was torn in half by a Beartic and I’m a proper _friend_ who didn’t want him to freeze to death and he’s a proper _friend_ who didn’t want _me_ to freeze to death!” Dolly spat.

“Why would you freeze to death?” Rouge asked casually.

“Jackson stole my blankets in his sleep and I was shivering like a stupid Snowrunt and he said he couldn’t sleep with my teeth chattering so we had to share and-”

Dolly froze. The Weavile raised an eyebrow.

“S-so um. We. W-we… we uh…”

“So yooou…?” Rouge repeated, raising an eyebrow.

“W-we… well it was just to keep warm and… and um…”

“So you cuddled?”

Dolly’s cheeks were flaring red.

“You totally did!” Rouge said after a laugh exploded from her mouth. “So _that’s_ what happened! You’re a gooey mess because he cuddled with you all night!”

“You finally embraced!” Rosa squealed. “What was it like, my Dolly? Did he hold you in his strong arms? Did he kiss you to wake you up?”

“No! Not to wake me up!”

Rouge’s jaw dropped.

“I-I mean no! He didn’t kiss me! W-well _we_ didn’t kiss! He woke me up by playing with my hair, _not_ by kissing me!”

“He was playing with your hair?!” Rosa squealed again. “Oh how romantic!”

“He _kissed_ you?!” Rouge repeated.

“And you loved it all, didn’t you, my Dolly?” Rosa said with a swoon. “You love it when he touches you.”

“No I don’t!” Dolly sputtered. “It was all out of necessity! He was playing with my hair to help me relax and we had to share a blanket so I wouldn’t freeze to death!”

“Why didn’t you just return Jackson to his Poké Ball?” Hudson asked, still plodding along as the Bellossom swooned while sitting on his head. “Coulda taken your blanket back.”

Dolly stopped in her tracks.

“I… I didn’t think of that.”

“And there’s no way I woulda let that happen,” Jackson growled, sneering at his teammates. “I’m not leaving her alone with him…”

“So it was fate,” Rosa said as she pounded her fist into her other hand. “The stars aligned, and he was _destined_ to hold you in his arms all night.”

“She couldn’t think of anything else because she was probably too distracted,” Rouge snickered.

“Oh, yes, my Dolly, were you distracted by his beautiful smile?” Rosa asked.

“Or those toned muscles?” Rouge asked.

“His long eyelashes?”

“Those long legs?”

“His golden eyes?”

“That tanned body?”

“Oh look there’s a Trainer time to train!” Dolly spluttered, and quickly returned all of her Pokémon to their Poké Balls. 

So much for a peaceful morning walk. 

Dolly was grateful for the distraction of battle, as the memories and feelings of her and Hop’s time together were still throbbing in her heart. As she and her team battled, their morning conversation took a backseat, as each of her Pokémon were focused on battling through Route 10 and gaining multiple levels each. Dolly was grateful; she needed to be beyond what she thought was a high enough level if she wanted to beat Leon without losing anyone. 

Dolly kicked at another ice chunk as she wove her way through Route 10. Ophelia, her Haxorus, was still out from their last battle. She wasn’t terribly cruel when it came to teasing, so perhaps she could stay out for a while. 

“Are you excited to battle in the Champion Cup, Dolly?” Ophelia asked.

Dolly let out a sigh of relief to finally not be bombarded about her relationship status. She really admired Ophelia. She was soft and kind and had a strangely melodic voice. It had always shocked her, as her presumption of a terrifying Dragon-type would be loud, rambunctious, with a deep and gravelly voice. Ophelia wasn’t like that, though. She was easily the gentlest member of her team, often singing them to sleep at the end of the day. Her voice was high-pitched, but not shrill. It almost sounded like silvery and gentle birdsong, and a bit like the Shell Bell she wore around her neck. She often picked little flowers to tuck into Dolly’s hair as they walked. 

“I think so,” Dolly replied. “It’s strange, being so close like this. I know you came onto the team the most recently, but it’s been such a long journey. It’s hard to believe I may almost be there. I may finally be close to breaking the Curse.”

“That will be an exciting day,” Ophelia nodded as they walked through the snow. “I know we’ve all worked so hard to get here - you most of all. Although they’re all a bit quirky, it’s easy to tell each of your Pokémon love you dearly.”

“To say they’re quirky is quite an understatement,” Dolly laughed. “But I do love you all from the bottom of my heart. I couldn’t have made it this far without your strength and support.”

“That’s what friends are for,” her Haxorus smiled. “And don’t forget your other friends, too, like Sonia and Hop. They have both been very encouraging friends to you. Perhaps you could do something nice for them after all of this is over.”

They walked in silence for a while, and the snow started to thin the further they traveled through Route 10. Dolly’s mind turned to Hop yet again, and she picked around her fingers. Why couldn’t she get him out of her head? His smile, his eyes, his warmth… It was like he was the static cling of his shirt she still wore.

“Ophelia…?”

Her Haxorus glanced to her.

“H-how do you know… um… how do you know if someone… if someone fancies you?”

Ophelia breathed out a laugh, looking again to the path ahead.

“I’m afraid there is no exact science,” Ophelia said. “If that were the case, the world would have far less love stories, love songs, love letters and poetry. I think that would be quite a sad world to live in.”

Dolly nodded and watched little blades of grass poke up through the snow as they walked. 

“Why do you ask, Dolly?”

Dolly heaved out another sigh and shoved her hands into her pockets.

“I um… I dunno. Everyone was just teasing earlier but… it’s all been really confusing for me. Hop’s my best friend, and always has been ever since I moved to Postwick. S-so I just… I guess I don’t know what to think. I don’t understand how he could see me like that…”

Ophelia let out a laugh as she plucked a little flower out of the ground.

“Dolly, I hope one day you can see yourself as we see you - as I’m sure he sees you. You have a kind and gentle heart. You are beautiful, inside and out.”

Her Haxorus tucked the little flower into Dolly’s hair.

“From what I’ve heard from our doting team members, it seems Hop has been fascinated by you since the day he met you. Whether that means it’s platonic or not, I can’t say for sure. And either way Dolly, you don’t need to figure everything out in a day.”

Dolly nodded and breathed out another sigh.

“I think the Champion Cup is more important to think about right now anyway, don’t you?” Ophelia smiled. “Hop will always be there for you, but the Champion Cup won’t.”

Dolly nodded, grinning at the thought of battling on the Champion pitch. 

“You’re right, thanks Ophelia.”

The Champion Cup. Wyndon Stadium. It was the very same arena that she saw so many times from the screen of her phone, or the screen of her television. It was the very same arena that she watched the Champion of Galar blaze through everyone who challenged him, battling with grace, with power, with passion. 

It would be the very same pitch where she would take the title of Champion. She knew it just as she knew the blood that beat in her veins.

As she reached the peak of the hill, again, Dolly knew. As she looked over Wyndon, over the magnanimity of the grandest city she had ever seen, she could already hear the crowds cheering her name. A grin etched onto her face, her heart started to pound, and her hair started to wisp in the wind as she saw Wyndon stadium in the distance.

She would do it. She would win. She would destroy each and every opponent without mercy to reach her goal. She would order her Pokémon forth, feel their power in her blood, watch as the smoke and the fire and the sand whirled around her as her opponents fell one by one. And then, she would face Leon. She would fight him with everything she had, and his Pokémon would fall too. The roar of the crowd would be deafening as she faced his Charizard, and the world would shake with the sound of her name as Leon’s last Pokémon fell. She would lose no one, and her power would be apparent. She would be leagues more powerful than the most powerful Champion the world had ever seen, because she harbored the power that can only grow from the pain she had experienced. She would unleash it as the world stared in awe, and then Leon would fall to his knees at her feet. She would defeat the undefeated. And then, she would break the unbreakable. Beat the Champion, break the Curse.

Dolly motioned to take a step, and a faint memory stroked through her mind.

Hesitate.

Wait. 

Go home to Postwick.

The words filtered through her mind like a dusty music box, its tone seeping into the air.

Dolly listened. She heard the faint words that used to so habitually repeat through her mind.

And then, just as quickly as they came, those thoughts were gone. Another six words took their place.

Beat the Champion, break the Curse.

Those were the words that pounded in her head just as her feet pounded against the earth. She was jogging. She was running. She was sprinting and racing beyond the burrs and the scars that littered her skin. She was running beyond the spit and the trash and the insults that had so often been thrown at her. The feeling of freedom welled in her soul, bursting within her as the wind whipped through her hair, as the gravel crunched beneath her feet. The gates of Wyndon welcomed her, and Dolly could barely breathe at the grandeur of the city before her.

Her eyes were locked on Wyndon stadium, twinkling pink in the distance. Dolly stopped for nothing, for no one, until she reached the plaza, until she reached the steps, until she reached the front counter of the stadium.

And then she leaned on the counter, because again, she could barely breathe. Hop had just finished signing in and raised an eyebrow at her.

“Did you run all the way here?”

“Yeah,” she panted. Then, she flopped her head on the counter. “I think I pulled something.”

“That’ll make it easier to win against you when we battle,” came a voice from behind her.

Dolly raised her head to see Marnie standing with her hands tucked in the pockets of her leather jacket.

“H-hold on,” Dolly said as she heaved in another breath. “Give me thirty seconds then I can trash talk.”

“You’d really think you’d have more stamina by now after traveling so much,” Hop said.

“Shut it.”

Dolly handed her Gym Badges to the League staff at the front desk. He looked them over as she caught her breath, then officially registered her for the Champion Cup.

“Looks like Bede didn’t make it, hard luck,” Hop said as he gazed over the atrium. “Somehow, I didn’t think he’d take being disqualified lying down, you know what I mean?”

“It’s true, he didn’t seem the type,” Marnie said as Dolly’s breathing finally slowed. “We should head to the locker room, soon, though, no use in waiting for him.” 

“Alright, you guys ready to lose?” Dolly said as she squared her shoulders with a grin.

“That’s the best you could come up with?” Hop asked. “You had an extra thirty seconds to think about something clever.” 

He laughed as Dolly shoved his arm, then the three of them made their way to their respective locker rooms. After a quick pep talk with her Pokémon, a League staff ushered her forward, and it was already time to head onto the pitch.

The Champion pitch was astronomically larger than any stadium she had been in before, and the crowds in the stands still filled every bit of it. Dolly gazed around as she made her way to the center of the pitch - it was like the world existed only of Wyndon stadium, only of her and Marnie standing across from each other. 

“I knew you’d get all the badges and meet me here,” Marnie said.

Dolly nodded. The weight of what she was about to do, what she was about to conquer; it was what made her heart beat. It was what caused the blood to pulse through her veins, through her arteries. It was a reminder of every night spent in the country of Galar, of every tear shed, of every Pokémon lost - one of them to the very girl before her.

“I know that there’s a lot between us,” Marnie continued. “With your Wooloo, my big brother and your Solosis, Team Yell, helpin’ Spikemuth and all that… But the truth is, when all’s said and done… I really just wanna become Champion for myself, so don’t take it personal when I kick your butt!”

Dolly grinned at her friend before her. She had always liked Marnie. She never seemed to judge, never seemed to scoff or look down her nose at her like all the other Challengers did. However, even though Marnie was honest, authentic, and kind, Dolly had no intention of holding back. It was finally time to defeat that Croagunk that took Lacey from her so long ago.

They took their stances on either side of the pitch. They simultaneously breathed in, then hurled their first Poké Ball. 

Dolly’s heart blazed through the battle, fighting against that familiar Liepard, Morpeko, even the Toxicroak that battled Lacey so long ago. Even with the sting of painful memories, Dolly had no intention of losing. Her Pokémon lurched forward, as they too were desperate to avenge their old friend. Dolly had trained her Pokémon beyond what she thought would be a good level to stop, and before long, Marnie’s final Grimmsnarl was defeated, and a deafening boom echoed through the arena as it fell to the pitch. When the dust settled, Marnie cast her gaze to the ground with a huff. As they met in the middle, Dolly gave Marnie a hug, who happily returned it, and when they each stepped back, Marnie cast her eyes down again.

“Everyone in the stadium was watchin’ us durin’ all that. I heard them cheerin’ for me an’ my Pokémon. It was… nice. I may have lost, but at least we drove the audience wild.”

Dolly nodded, gazing over the stands as Marnie spoke. Banners bearing their names were waving in the crowd - Dolly wondered just how many Team Yell members there actually were, because the crowd was dappled with plenty of pink and black. She wouldn’t be surprised if all of Spikemuth had showed up to support their ‘little princess.’

“Think I’ll join my brother in the stands,” Marnie said. “And we’ll see who ends up challenging the Champion. Just so you know… I haven’t decided if I’m gonna cheer for you.”

Once she was back in the locker room, Dolly barely had time to sit down before the League Staff was ushering her back onto the pitch. Apparently Hop had won against the other Challenger quite handily, and it was time for her to battle again.

A lump formed in her throat. She had a feeling it would come to this.

Her body shook as she stepped onto the pitch, waiting with anticipation for the battle soon to start. She met Hop in the middle and gazed up at his familiar face.

He smiled softly at her as the roar of the crowd erupted. It was like every audience member knew. It was like they all knew everything. It was like they all knew every word, every touch, every night spent together. It was seemingly all laid bare as Hop and Dolly stood across from each other. 

“I just had this sort of flashback, you know?” Hop said softly. “Remember? Back when we were still in Postwick. When we got our Pokémon from Lee that day, I never would’ve dreamed that I’d end up standing here… facing you, of all people.”

Dolly breathed out a laugh as their situation loomed over her and the entire stadium. When Hop’s smile softened into the stoic power she had seen when he battled Raihan, she had to steel herself - now was not the time to buckle under the weight of the intensity in his eyes.

“Everything I told you on Route 10, Dolls… I can’t deny it. But now that I’m here, standing on this pitch... It’s time I finish what was started that day in Postwick. The one who’ll become Champion is me.”

Hop and Dolly made their way to their sides of the pitch. They turned, and gazed into the eyes of their best friend.

And there they stood; necessity against necessity, autonomy against belonging, and security against freedom. One was seeking love from a brother, the other seeking love from the world. Both wanted this, needed this, and both were willing to do whatever it took to secure the victory from the other.

Whomever won could move forward. Whoever won would reach their goal, while crushing the other’s into the ground. Their determination and necessity to win were mutually exclusive; in that moment, on the Champion pitch, one could not exist alongside the other. As the two friends blazed with determination, each was fully confident it would be them, and each was willing to risk the other to get it.

The fires roared to life as each threw out their first Pokémon. Everything they had gone through, together, separately, their goals and memories and feelings all shot through the air with each attack, rolled across the grass with each defense. Their words and actions and glances were thick in the air, thick in the dust rising around them.

There were potions and berries and flashes of light, cheers and songs and roars from the crowd. Memories and lights and sounds wove through the stadium; it was as if a blanket in a tent was rustling, as if a hotel door was creaking, as if the steam of a bath was wafting through the air. It was as if the sound of charms tinkled, as if mushrooms glowed, as if Butterfree fluttered. It was smiles and laughter and brief touches and glances, confusion and wonderings and security, all at the same time.

Each sunset, each brush of the skin, bits of fur in the mouth, the bruises and cuts and bandages and giggles, the tinge of pink on cheeks, the glint of gold in the eye, the stories and dreams and interlocking fingers; all of it was woven in every particle in the air, woven in the arteries of each Trainer, as they battled and moved across the grass of the pitch.

They locked eyes. It was stoicism against stoicism, power against power, might against might. It was as if they were dancing through the battle, stepping in time with the song of the crowd. They weaved and stepped and turned, ushering their Pokémon forward in blazes of passion. The necessity lurched with each attack, pulling each Trainer forward from between their bones. Every muscle and tendon and fiber of being, they moved and pulled and danced along with the song of the crowd until finally her Pokémon were weak, and his were back to their Poké Balls. 

As the dust settled, he looked into her eyes once again.

“Looks like I’m down to my last Pokémon,” Hop grimaced as he tossed his Poké Ball. Both his Rillaboom and her Cinderace Dynamaxed, and the red glow saturated the stadium. “Should have left it to you not go easy on-” 

Hop froze as he looked up at Dolly across the pitch.

Past the feelings, past the memories, past the dirt and the dust and the smoke of the battle, tears were streaming down her face. Their tracks glistened in the stadium lights, down her face and stained her shirt in dark gray splotches, as they fell in globs onto the turf below. Red smeared over her nose, her eyes, her face, as her sobs echoed from across the pitch in broken, cracked huffs.

A breath escaped his lips. His heart stopped as he watched her there, shoulders slumped as she cried freely, not even bothering to wipe the tears from her face. They fell rapidly, continuously, with no sign of stopping soon. From so far away, he could barely make out the words on her lips as she shook her head and whispered.

“I’m so sorry, Hop."

In one swift strike, Dolly won the semifinals.

Rillaboom returned in a flash to his Poké Ball. Hop stared at the pitch, unable to process the seconds leading up to this moment. His shoulders trembled, quaked, until he threw a fist in defeat. Then, he looked back up to Dolly.

It was an eternity that they stood across from each other. The cheers that erupted around them were muffled, like the sound itself was being pushed out by the gravity of the universe only the two of them were in. Everything around them was cloaked in that gravity, as they slowly stepped towards each other.

It only took two steps before Dolly broke into a sprint, her hair and tears flying behind her as she ran towards him. Her feet pounded against the pitch, covering the space in seconds that felt like years. He caught her as she threw her arms around him.

“I’m so sorry, Hop, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed as her body slumped against his. She shook her head as her fingers clutched the fabric of his shirt. “I’m so sorry,” 

“It’s alright, Dolls,” he whispered into her hair, though he couldn’t hide the crack in his voice. “I’m glad it was you here with me.” 

There they stood, muffled sobs and silent tears alike falling from the eyes of the two friends. They weren’t sure how long they stood there, or who was watching, or where they were. It didn’t matter. The universe existed only for them. Everything that laced itself throughout the pitch, throughout the battle, finally settled into the ground.

After that eternity, after their tears had ebbed, after their breathing softened, Hop took a step back to gaze into Dolly’s bloodshot eyes. 

“You’re off to the finals though, mate, that’s excellent,” he said with a smile. 

His eyes scanned her face, blotchy and red. Her glasses were fogged from the heat of her tears, and the once-neat tear tracks were smeared over her cheeks. Strands of hair stuck to her cheeks, plastered to her skin like wet glue. 

“But, because of me, you can’t reach your goal, you won’t be able to face-”

“My goals are mine to decide,” he interrupted.

Dolly hiccuped as her eyes flitted about his face. 

“Hop…”

“And because of this, you’re one step closer to breaking this bloody Noodle Curse,” he added with a soft smile.

Dolly let out a weak laugh, and shook her head.

“You’re a twit.” 

Like a switch was flipped, he grinned as he lifted his thumbs up under her glasses, and wiped the fresh tears from her cheeks. 

“And I’m your favorite twit. No more tears, ‘k, mate? You won fair and square.”

She nodded and pulled the hair off her face. Dolly wove her hands around his waist again, hoping she could squeeze every bit of love into his bones so he could know, so he could feel it, so she could wrap every bit of herself around him, and he would never never fall apart. After another eternity she let go, although her fingers were still ghosting over the fabric of his shirt. She was worried that if she stepped too far away, he may disappear forever. He alleviated her fear as he curled his fingers around hers. The two stepped back and took a glance around, and the confetti was fluttering around them, and the crowd was still going wild. 

“And the victor of the Semifinals,” the announcer boomed throughout the Stadium. “The Challenger who has won their way through all of the many hopeful Trainers in the Gym Challenge is… Challenger Dolly!”

Her eyes darted around the audience, and it suddenly dawned on her where she was. A lump formed in her throat. She turned again to Hop, and through the glitter and confetti, he matched her gaze. She let out a weak smile, and he again, like she was now so accustomed to, looked at her for just a second too long.

After a nod, a squeeze of the hand, they walked together off the pitch.

As soon as they made it into the locker room, both were almost blasted back by an explosion of cheers from the Gym Leaders waiting for them there. Hop actually was catapulted back, as Leon launched himself onto his brother as soon as they stepped into the locker room.

“Hop, I am _so proud of you,_ ” Leon said as he squeezed his brother as hard as he could. He took a step back, and held Hop by his shoulders. “You were incredible. Brilliant. Honestly, I am honored to call you my brother.”

Hop froze, and after a few seconds, his shoulders started to shake. Leon pulled him into another hug.

“Your determination and ferocity inspire me every time I battle, and that was apparent in your battle today. I know I don’t say it enough, but I love you, Hop.”

“I love you too, Lee,” Hop sniffed.

He finally stood back and rubbed at his eyes. Leon slung his arm around Hop’s shoulders as he wiped his eyes, and Leon ruffled his hair. 

“And you, Dolly,” he grinned. “To think that the two of you set out together from the same town, built up the greatest teams, and arrived here at this point to throw everything you had at one another… That burning desire to win… Those moves filled with undefeatable passion! It was battling at its very purest, in every possible way!”

Dolly grinned as Leon stepped forward and slung his other arm around her, though she grumbled when he ruffled her hair as well. 

“My team members and I will give everything that we’ve got in us to defeat our challenger,” he continued. “And the challenger standing before us might as well end up being you, Dolly. In fact, that’s precisely what I’m hoping for!”

Dolly gazed around the room, watching as each Gym Leader stood before her and offered Dolly and Hop a congratulations. As soon as Piers was about to speak, Raihan shoved himself to the front of the group.

“Now _that_ was an ending to the semifinals if _I’ve_ ever seen one!” Raihan beamed. 

“Excuse you,” Piers grumbled.

“You had the crowd going mad, all the way up until the very end!” Raihan continued, ignoring Piers and throwing his arms up. He whipped out his Rotom phone as evidence. “You should have seen everything blowing up on social!”

Hop and Dolly peered onto his screen as he scrolled, viewing themselves standing in the middle of the pitch together only moments ago. Raihan took a step back, held his hands out, and gestured grandly. 

“What a story. Two mates from the teeny town of Nowhere, both endorsed by the Champion. One,” he said as he pointed to Hop. “His little brother with sights set on finally tasting greatness and glory of his own. The other,” he said as he pointed to Dolly. “With a mysterious condition with the goal of breaking free of it.”

Raihan was standing on a bench now, still gesturing grandly. His head almost hit the ceiling, but neither that, nor the furrowed brows of the League staff, seemed to sway him as he continued.

“Opponents throughout their Gym Challenge, each have worthy and big dreams, the same goal they both need to reach - the Championship! Nothing can stop them, not even each other, friends and rivals until the bitter end, and then _THIS!”_

Raihan shoved his Rotom phone at them again. The screen showed a picture of how Dolly hugged Hop with everything she had, and of Hop’s soft smile and tear-stained face.

“Oh man, do you two know how to make a dramatic ending!” Raihan laughed as he double-tapped his screen.

“Geez, good news travels fast, huh,” Hop muttered.

“That’s what happens when you’re among the strongest Pokémon Trainers in Galar,” Leon chuckled, ruffling Hop’s hair again. “You both must be exhausted. Go wash up and we’ll get some dinner later tonight.”

Dolly bit back a yawn as her body felt heavy at the word. She nodded, and Leon ushered her and Hop into the lift, enthusing that they needed to go greet their fans. They both stumbled into the lift, and waved at the Gym Leaders as the doors closed. After a moment, Hop slumped against the wall. 

“I am _beat_. You don’t mess around, Dolls.”

She laughed and tucked a hair behind her ear. And then, when she had time to recall the severity of what she just accomplished, and at what cost, the tears started to tumble down her face again. Her lip quivered as she turned to Hop.

“Hop, I’m so sor-”

“Dolls,” he interrupted. He stood straight and sternly set his hands on his hips. “I said I’m fine, please believe me.”

Her lip was still quivering as she nodded. Hop chuckled, and again wiped the tears from her face. 

“Well, maybe I’ll be more fine if I get another hug.”

Dolly breathed out a laugh and curled her arms around him. He sighed when she rested her head on his chest.

“Ahh, yep, now I’m definitely fine.”

She rolled her eyes as Hop squeezed her tighter.

“Honestly… I thought I would feel different,” he muttered against her hair. “Sure, I’m bummed but mainly… mainly I feel… free.”

She pulled back.

“Really?”

“Really really.”

Dolly beamed up at him and flung herself against him in another hug. Hop let out an ‘oof’ and stumbled back against the wall of the lift. The tears were falling again as she hugged him with everything she had.

“G-geez you’re going to break my ribs,”

“Shut up and let me be happy for you.”

Hop laughed and squeezed her in return. After a few seconds, he let out a ‘hm.’

“Never been too good at shutting up, personally,” he pondered.

“You’re ruining the moment, Hop.”

“Well…” Hop said cautiously. “There is _one_ way to get me to stop talking...”

Dolly paused, then pulled back again. Hop’s cheeks were tinged red as he gazed down at her, and he was cautiously biting his lip. Before she could respond, however, the lift doors opened, and they were met with a chorus of applause. League staff ushered them out of the lift, through the atrium, and out of the front doors of the stadium.

As soon as they stepped into the plaza, another chorus of cheers erupted from below. Dolly grinned as she saw signs with her name etched in them and jerseys with the number 052 throughout the crowd. She made her way down the steps as a few girls ran up to her.

“Your match with Hop was brilliant!” one enthused as her eyes sparkled. “Can we get a picture?”

Dolly’s heart swelled as she nodded. Hop grinned at her and gave her a thumbs up as he continued down the steps, then they all huddled around her and the girl’s Rotom phone snapped a picture of them. After their picture, and a bit of chatting, they said their thanks and headed into the crowd, but not before Dolly caught the end of their conversation.

“Let’s get one with Hop, too!”

“Oh yes _please_ , that boy is _yummy_."

And suddenly, Dolly wasn’t so fond of those girls anymore.

Dolly meandered through the crowd, signing autographs and taking pictures, and overall enjoying the energy in the space. She caught sight of Hop who was standing and chatting with the group of girls from earlier, and something in her stomach tightened. Something in her didn’t like the way the tall one tittered around him, flipping her hair and batting her eyelashes.

Even with one of them swooning all over him, touching his arms, and offering her phone number, Hop politely declined, and waved a goodbye. 

...Huh.

Dolly started to make her way to the edge of the plaza. It was about time she and Hop started heading out anyway, as the sun was beginning to set. They still needed to wash up and get ready for dinner with Leon. The crowd had seemed to grow thicker in the past few minutes, and Dolly had a hard time getting around. Suddenly, she could no longer see the edge of the plaza, as hundreds of people buzzed around her. She whipped her head around for a sign of something familiar, for the road, for Hop, but there were too many people in the way.

Just as the group started closing in around her, her throat started to close. Her heartbeat sped up and her hands started to shake. Flashbacks to the mob at Motostoke shot through her vision like gunshots, their angry yells filling her ears. She tried to back away, only to run into more people. 

Suddenly, instead of the Wyndon stadium plaza, she was shot back to Motostoke, on her way to Budew Drop Inn. Behind her eyelids, she watched the angry mob furiously swiping at her, and the ringing in her ears were their insults and accusations. Then, again she was back to the plaza, hopeful faces around her. She tried to breathe slowly, but the memories tore through her mind, slashed through her rationale. 

More and more people pressed into her, and her breathing started to quicken. Dolly couldn’t control its rate, her breaths coming in faster and faster. Her vision started to tunnel. It was like her skin was a sharp, cold, electric current. Her vision continued to flip between Wyndon in the evening sun, and Motostoke in the stormy dark, smiling faces and furious faces, but the same feeling of her chest tight and fingers cold. 

Wait.

They were smiling.

They were all laughing and talking and smiling at her.

They weren’t calling her a monster.

“Your match was amazing!” someone said from beside her.

They weren’t calling her a freak.

“Yes, absolutely brilliant!” the person next to them enthused.

She was waiting, waiting, for someone to call her a murderer.

“You’re _incredible_ , Challenger Dolly!”

...Maybe she wasn’t disgusting. Maybe they didn’t think she was terrible.

A small smile bloomed on Dolly’s face as she started to return to reality. That flower of self-love was slowly ingraining its roots deeper, forming new patterns and thoughts as she conversed with her fans. She kindly asked them to not stand so close, they happily obliged, and Dolly believed them when they complimented her. She believed them when they said they admired her. She believed them when they said she was strong, said she was brave. And, she believed in her heart that she was worthy of love.


	26. Anything, Anything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 26 - Anything, Anything**

The sun was sinking over the horizon and the crowds in the Wyndon stadium plaza were finally beginning to thin. Although the masses of people made Dolly’s heart beat quickly, she was continuously surprised by the number of smiles and handshakes and compliments people offered. She couldn’t make groups of people laugh like Hop could, nor could she make them swoon like Leon could, but she was awfully good at giving an awkward nod and a ‘y-yeah sure’ whenever someone asked for her autograph. She even gave a kid a high-five.

Dolly heaved out a sigh of exhaustion after another group waved goodbye. Is this what Leon felt like all the time? Always being talked to and asked for pictures and autographs? If he were anything like her, he must be exhausted literally always. She hadn’t even made it through the finals yet, and she’d been talking with people for eons. The Gym Leaders were probably all exhausted always, too. But then again, people like Leon, and even Raihan and Hop, were all much better with people than she was. She’d have to get used to the constant attention, seeing as the next step was claiming the throne as Champion. Dolly smiled at the thought - only the finals left, and then the Champion himself. She’d beat him, and maybe by then she would learn how to like crowds. She wasn’t terrified of them anymore, at least, so that was a good start - one little step was better than no steps. 

Her Pokémon helped a bit, too. She let them spread throughout the plaza, as she started to see they had fans of their own. Dolly rolled her eyes at Jackson, who was flexing for a group of Lopunnys surrounding him. He winked at one, who then toppled over with a swoon. As she watched the aftermath of that, someone slipped their hand into hers.

“You okay?” Hop asked.

Her eyes flitted about his face, and the tension in her shoulders eased as Hop stood beside her. Dolly looked out over the crowd and nodded.

“This is really exhausting, but it’s also kinda fun.”

“Good, you’re doing great, Dolls,” Hop grinned as he gave her hand another squeeze. She smiled in return.

“Are you doing okay?” she asked.

“I’m brilliant, thanks for asking though,” Hop laughed. “I’ve got to swat all my fans off with a stick! I love it. Speaking of which, I promised a group of mums a picture, so I’ve gotta take care of that. I won’t be far, okay?”

She nodded and watched as he wove through the crowd. Did he just come by to check on her? That was... that was really thoughtful.

Her attention turned as a group of guys stepped up next, immediately enthused about her battling, and held out her League cards for signatures. Dolly couldn’t help but laugh when they jokingly groveled for a picture with the ‘coolest Challenger ever.’ 

They took their picture and talked with her a bit more. These guys were ridiculous, and Dolly’s laugh rang through the plaza as they all bantered back and forth. One of them invited her to a party they were hosting, and she told him she was meeting with Leon later and couldn’t come, but she thanked him for the invitation. After one of them cracked another joke, they all finally waved goodbye. 

When the group dispersed, Hop was standing in the aftermath of the now-empty space. His arms were crossed, and his brow was furrowed. She smiled at the sight of him, but his expression didn’t change.

“Those some friends of yours, Dolls?”

She glanced around, but that group had disappeared into the thinning crowd. She shook her head.

“They just wanted some pictures and autographs.”

“They didn’t need to stick around, then, those don’t take long.”

“Well we were chatting some, too,” she said. Dolly tilted her head. “Are you okay?”

“Did you not notice how that one bloke was all over you?” Hop huffed, ignoring her question and setting his hands on his hips.

“What?”

“Come on,” he said. “He’s been staring at you since you came out of the stadium!”

“Hop, everyone is staring at me, I just won the semifinals.”

“Well he didn’t need to stand so close to you,” Hop grumbled.

Dolly squinted her eyes, as if the motion would unmask Hop’s grumpy glare.

“Are you… are you mad at me?” she asked.

“Well, no,” Hop said as his eyes shifted to the side. “I’m not mad at _you_ ,”

Dolly barely caught as he grumbled under his breath.

“Mad at that bloody Greedent herd that’s fawning over my Pecha berry...”

Her eyebrows pulled together as she gazed up at him. Why was he acting so weird? There were plenty of people that had been chatting with her, asking for pictures, autographs, and telling her stories or asking her questions. 

“You’re mad at them?”

“Um. Yes.”

“Why?”

“They all were just… looking at you and talking to you.”

“So is everyone else,” she replied, setting her hands on her hips.

“No,” Hop retorted as he mirrored her posture.

“What are you talking about? I’ve been talking with people this entire time,” she said.

“Not with giant groups of guys,”

“So what? I can’t have guys as fans?”

“Not when they hit on you!” he finally huffed.

Were they hitting on her? She hadn’t really noticed, in all honesty. She was more focused on whatever funny story they were going to tell next. They did invite her to a party, though.

“And not when you flirt back,” Hop added with a grumble.

Was she flirting? Again, she hadn’t really noticed.

“Well I did like talking with them,” Dolly replied, thinking it over. “Normally when I’m in a crowd people spit on me. They were all really nice, and really funny.”

“You didn’t even know that one was hitting on you,” Hop huffed.

“So?” Dolly said. “What’s that matter?”

“Because I can’t always be around to tell you!” Hop retorted as he threw his hands up.

Dolly raised her eyebrows at his sudden outburst.

“I’m not asking you to,” she replied. “You’re being weird, Hop.”

“I’m not being weird, I’m being normal.”

“Yeah, normal for someone who’s acting weird.”

“At least I don’t flirt with my fans!” he spat.

Dolly’s eyebrows furrowed.

“I _wasn’t_ , and even if I were, what’s that matter?” she said. “Now you’re being mean.”

Hop rubbed over his face and sighed.

“You’re right, sorry,” Hop said, scuffing at the ground. “I just… they were… ugh, never mind, let’s just go, we need to meet Lee.”

Hop pouted as they left the plaza and pouted even more when Dolly waved at that group of guys as they passed by. He huffed again as they made their way away from the plaza, down the steps, and onto the road across from the Wyndon river. 

Dolly breathed in deeply, grateful to be away from the crowds. Hop had a knack for dealing with the attention, but something about it really wore her out. She glanced back up to him, and his brow was still furrowed. Maybe he was worn out, too, and that was why he was snapping at her. Or maybe he just wanted dinner; sometimes he got snippy when he was hungry. It had been quite a day for the both of them.

Maybe he needed a hug or something. Hop’s hand was hanging loosely beside him, and something within Dolly desperately wanted to reach out and slip her hand into his, to lace their fingers together, to swing their hands back and forth as they walked. 

Just to comfort him, of course.

Although she landed on that justification, Dolly found it awfully challenging to reach out to him. They walked in silence as the sunset cast pink and orange rays over Wyndon, and it glittered on the surface of the river beside them. It was a crisp evening, and the light dappled through the trees on the sidewalk path. Notes from an acoustic guitar drifted in the air as a Toxtricity calmly plucked an idyllic melody from an open window above them, and a few bikers cycled down the path, trilling their bells to add to the music in the air. 

The… atmosphere was pretty rubbish anyway. She didn’t want to hold his hand when everything was so gross around them, especially as the sun glittered through the leaves in the trees and every once in a while caught Hop’s eyes, so those flecks of gold flickered just as the sunset did.

Hmm. Yep. Absolutely rubbish.

Maybe if she got a sign or something, maybe then she would reach out and hold his hand. Just platonically, of course. If she saw... rose petals flinging through the air, that would be a sign.

Suddenly a group of Roselias tumbled out of a shop front, flinging rose petals into the air.

Hm. Shit.

Dolly swallowed, watching as his hand swayed lightly beside him. She was getting much better at doing hard things, though, perhaps she could just try. Just hold his hand a _little_ bit. Dolly heaved in a breath, reached over, and delicately curled her pinky around his. He looked down at her.

“I-I, um… I’m just worried about you,” she muttered as her face flushed. “You were being really weird…”

A small smile bloomed on his face as Hop breathed out a laugh, and the furrow in his brow faded. Dolly smiled when he smiled, took a quick step forward, curled her arms around him, and squeezed him into a hug. Hop paused, then wove his arms around her in return. He sighed deeply, and the tension in his body faded.

“Oh man, I needed that,” Hop said quietly. He rested his head on top of hers and breathed out another deep sigh. “Thanks for worrying about me, Dolls. You’re getting better at that.”

“Well of course I’m worried about you, you’re my best friend in the whole world,” she said quietly. 

Her cheeks were warm as he squeezed her tighter, and she flushed deeper when he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Again, it was gentle, soft, and so natural. She wondered if he too felt the familiar flutter of Butterfree whenever he did that. She didn’t think about it long, and instead turned, and they started forward again. After a few steps, Dolly glanced to his hand. 

...Then again, maybe it was okay that she liked holding his hand. He said that it was okay if she liked cuddling and physical affection… and she did. Maybe it wasn’t that weird? When she hesitantly curled her pinky around his again, Hop heaved out half a sigh, half a laugh. 

“Are you doing all this on purpose?”

Was this weird? Ah man it was weird, she knew it, abort mission, cancelled. She shoved her hands back into her pockets. 

“S-sorry, I thought… I thought it would make you feel better…”

“Geez you’re actually not, are you...” he muttered, more to himself than to her. After another pause, Hop scratched behind his neck. “Honestly it’s real hard to not do whatever you want when you do stuff like this. Look. Those guys in the plaza were hitting on you, and it seemed liked… you liked it.”

Dolly thought it over. She supposed they said she was good at Pokémon battles, and they invited her to that party, but she was more focused on whatever joke they were going to make next. Dolly breathed out, and she couldn’t stop the small smile that broke over her face.

“Hop, I liked it because this is one of the first times a crowd of people didn’t push me or throw things at me,” Dolly explained. “You can be upset, I suppose, but there’s nothing to worry about.”

The heat rose to Dolly’s cheeks as she laced the rest of her fingers around his.

“Actually, I, um…” she continued, glancing to the ground. “I much preferred when you were with me, anyway...”

Dolly was still bashfully staring at the ground, so she didn’t catch how Hop raised his eyebrows, or how his cheeks tinged darker as well. She did, however, catch when he breathed out an ‘oh.’ That certainly perked him up, and his signature smile was back.

“Oh, well, that’s good, then,” he grinned. “Okay, yes, good. Let’s go,”

Hop pulled her forward by her hand, and it didn’t seem like he had any intent of letting go. Instead of a furrow in his brow, it was like Hop had the ghost of a smile on his lips, and those familiar Butterfree were fluttering when Dolly lightly swung their hands as they walked. As they continued along, Dolly’s brow furrowed.

“Why did that bother you, though?” Dolly asked. “They were being nice,”

Hop looked beyond her to the river. His shoulders tensed, as if he were holding his breath. She looked at him inquisitively.

“I… I was…”

She raised an eyebrow.

“I was jealous,” he grumbled.

Jealous? Of her? Of them? What? Why?

“…Why? I spend a lot of time with you.”

“Because… B-because…”

Hop took in a breath, and looked at her intently. 

"Dolls, I'm going to tell you something, and I’ve wanted to tell you this for a long time. You… You don’t have to reply, or, or say anything back, but… I need you to know that… that...” 

Hop glanced to the ground again, then back up to her. 

“I’m… um..”

And then, as she was gazing at him with such a worried countenance, something in Hop’s eyes seemed to soften. It was as if his soul was reaching out to her when he leaned a hair closer. He heaved in a breath.

“Dolls, I’m in-"

“Behind you!” came a voice from behind them.

They heard a bell ring as a biker came racing past and Hop had to leap out of the way in order not to get run over by the tires zooming by. He lost his footing and tripped, caught himself against the railing overlooking the river, and had pinned Dolly between his arms.

Dolly’s breath caught in her throat. 

They stared at each other as the electricity shocked between them. Then, as if on instinct, her eyes darted to his lips, and back up to his eyes. Hop seemed to be thinking the same as her, as after a moment, he relaxed his arms, and his hand gently moved down as he hesitantly, barely, hovered a hand over her waist. Her fingers curled around the fabric of his shirt, the familiar heat radiating from his skin beneath. Memories of his lean muscle, of his hands on her, of his weight pressed against her flicked through her mind as he leaned his head in, glancing from her eyes to her lips. The electricity was pulling them together like static, pulling from between their bones, there between his arms and the railing behind her.

They stood only inches away, feeling the heat of each other’s skin so close. Dolly’s eyes started to flutter closed as she waited, waited, for the one thing she hadn’t allowed herself to think about. The word ‘ _finally’_ pressed into her like his fingers on her waist. His hand trembled as he grazed her cheek, pushed her hair off her neck, then slid so he cupped her jaw. 

Again, his eyes were closed, his lips were parted, and his brow was furrowed as she gazed at him through her eyelashes. When he tilted her chin up, Dolly held her breath as she felt him only a centimeter away, feeling that heat and tingling nerves as his breath hit her lips. He was pausing, waiting, his hands trembling. Dolly could think of nothing except how Hop leaned closer, how his lips barely grazed hers. 

“Hey, aren’t you two Dolly and Hop?” a voice squeaked.

Dolly’s eyes shot open, Hop catapulted back, and tripped over a hedge.

A little girl was standing behind them and holding the hand of her Togepi. 

“Can I get an autograph?” she squealed, holding out their two League cards.

A woman, who must have been her mother, looked almost as flustered as Dolly felt. 

“Not now, honey, these two Trainers are busy,” she said as she looked up at them apologetically.

“N-no, she’s fine, anything for a fan!” Hop stuttered as he stumbled up to the little girl. 

He knelt in front of her and signed her card with a grin. Dolly plucked her card from the girl’s hand as well, signed it, and handed it back down to her. She squealed again and held them to her chest. 

“Wowie! Look mummy, look! I got them _both_ signed!” she enthused, showing her mum the two cards. “And you tried to get me not to look, but I knew who they were!” 

The mum nodded nervously and avoided eye contact with either of them.

“That’s great, love, now why don’t you say thank you to the nice Trainers and we’ll leave them be?”

The little girl nodded, and her pigtails bobbed chaotically. 

“Yes, yes, thanks so much! I’m going to be a strong Trainer like you guys someday! I’ve already got Togepi at level five!” she grinned, revealing two missing front teeth.

“I believe it,” Hop beamed as he gave her a knuckle bump. “I bet you could beat me already!”

The little girl grew bashful, kicking at the ground. Her mother started pulling her away. 

“Thanks again,” she smiled sheepishly as she prodded her daughter along.

“Get back to it, kiddo,” the Togepi grunted gruffly as he waddled away.

Dolly’s jaw dropped as the trio toddled off, the little girl holding her mum’s hand in her right, and Togepi’s hand in her left. Was that Togepi smoking a cigar?

After a moment, and then a moment after that, Hop cleared his throat. 

“W-we should get going, huh?” Hop sputtered out.

“Yep.” Dolly squeaked. 

Well that sure was weird. 

Dolly was glad that little girl came up, because she didn’t really want to kiss Hop, anyway. Not that that’s what they were going to do. Definitely not. Why would she want that? That would be weird and not platonic. There wasn’t some strange satisfaction when he was upset about all those guys. It wasn’t like he fancied her, and it wasn’t like she was head-over-heels like all her Pokémon said. They were just awfully good friends, just like they had always been. 

So, it sure was a good thing that when they started walking, that bolt of lightning struck between them when their hands brushed. They couldn’t hold hands if Dolly’s hands were shoved in her pockets and Hop’s were locked behind his head as he attempted to whistle.

That was how they walked for the rest of the way to the Rose of the Rondelands hotel: an awkward distance apart, all the while painfully ignoring the rose petals drifting through the air from some Roselias, ignoring the glistening of the setting sun over the river, and ignoring the serenade of that conveniently-placed Toxtricity plucking that acoustic guitar.

They eventually pushed open the glass doors to the hotel lobby, and Dolly breathed out a sigh of relief, only to suck it back in when they were immediately swarmed by paparazzi. One shoved a camera into Dolly’s face.

“Challenger Dolly! Hey, Challenger Dolly! Got time for some questions?!” the interviewer asked, blue eyes piercing into Dolly’s brown.

“Uhh-” Dolly stammered.

“First question!” she interrupted. “You and Challenger Hop were both endorsed by the Champion, making the two of you rivals in a sense, wouldn’t you say?”

“Uhh-” Dolly said again, eyes flickering between the interviewer and the camera.

“How does it feel to have defeated your rival?” the interviewer pressed, shoving the microphone up to Dolly’s mouth.

She was acutely aware of the lens boring into her soul, and Dolly felt like she swallowed a Whimsicott. 

“It… it doesn’t quite feel real yet, honestly,” she coughed.

“Right…” the interviewer said. “Question number two! If you wanted to tell Challenger Hop something right now, what would it be?”

Dolly glanced to Hop, and her nerves seemed to fade. Again, even just standing beside her, his presence made her feel supported even with this camera boring into her soul.

“...That he was just the rival I knew he was,” she said with a soft smile.

They held each other’s gaze for a split second, and Dolly tilted her head with a smile.

“Did you get that look?” the interviewer hissed. When the cameraman nodded, she smirked and turned to Dolly again. “Question number three! Is there a secret something our viewers may want to know about?” 

“Uhh-”

The interviewer stepped around in front of the camera, eyeing it intensely. 

“Have these two tragic Trainers been only rivals throughout their Gym Challenge… or have they also been secret _lovers?_ ”

“Alright alright, that’s enough questions!” Hop huffed, marching to the camera and forcing the lens down. “Dolls is wiped from her match, and you’ve been asking rather _rude_ questions! We’ve got ourselves dinner plans with my brother, so, sorry, but clear off already, would you?”

“Yes yes of course,” the interviewer grinned, as she and her videographer turned away. “We’ve got _all_ the content we needed.”

“Yeesh,” Hop breathed out as they left. “Famous people sure have it rough, eh?”

Hop turned away before she could get a good glance, but it seemed the tips of his ears were tinged pink.

“Now where’s Lee? I could eat my own arm about now,” he huffed.

“I think we’re still early,” Dolly replied, scuffing at the ground with her shoe. Why was she so sweaty again? At least she could think now, without that camera lens boring into her.

“Yeah, I’m um… I’m gonna go take a shower,” Hop grumbled.

Dolly nodded.

“Good idea. I’ll come with you.”

His head whipped back to her and Dolly’s eyes widened.

“I-I mean not _with_ you, n-not, not like that!” she stuttered as the heat flared in her cheeks. “I just meant I also want to shower you, n-no, I mean shower too! Without you there, I meant! Not that you would be there, or anything!”

Dolly tried to swallow as her face flared red.

“Actually I’m just going to wait outside,” she said as she turned on her heel and pushed open the hotel doors.

Well. That went terribly.

The fountain in the plaza bubbled as Dolly flopped onto its ledge. Why couldn’t she speak? Why couldn’t she be normal?

But mainly, why couldn’t she get him out of her head? Thoughts of Hop were pushing and prodding, even as she squeezed her eyes closed. Dolly tried to watch the Corviknights in the plaza, or the Ferris wheel behind the hotel. She tried to distract herself, and tried to not wonder what Hop were doing right then, or what it would be like if she were with him, if he was dripping wet, leaning over her, if the steam magnified the heat between them, if he were staring at her with those intense golden eyes as he pushed her against the wall of a shower-

 _Stop._ Stop stop stop. She couldn’t be thinking about him like that, she shouldn’t be thinking about him like that, but why couldn’t she stop thinking about him like that? Thoughts of Hop were swarming, just as the Butterfree were in her gut, and Dolly didn’t know what to do with the tension that was building in her.

What if he trapped her between his arms as he leaned in? What if the river behind them bubbled as the sunset glistened in his eyes? What if his gaze flicked from her eyes to her lips? What if he leaned in, and what if he kissed her? And then what if he kissed her again? And again and again and again harder and deeper and desperately-

Nope, no. Stop. She needed to stop, she couldn’t be thinking about him like that. Hop was her best friend, always had been, and always would be. Again, Dolly tried to think of anything else that wasn’t her best friend and his lips and his hands and his heat. 

But what if they were in the dark of a tent alone? What if he were pressed against her, his entire body curled around hers? What if he was combing through her hair, his smile so close to her, as he leaned in? What if he kissed her cheek, then kissed closer to the corner of her mouth? What if he did it again, another inch closer, and then, what if he kissed her? Fully? Completely? What he kissed her gently and tenderly as his hands explored wherever he wanted and-

Dolly rubbed at her eyes with a frustrated huff.

Or what if they were in a hotel room in Hammerlocke? What if he said something coy, what if he turned off the final light, then guided her onto the bed? What if he straddled her hips, pinned her hands, leaned over her, then kissed her hard? What if his kisses left marks and bruises riddled all over her? What if his breath was hot on her neck, what if his tongue slid over her skin, what if she melted in his fingertips, what if she wanted it, and then wanted more? What if she saw those golden eyes glinting in the dark as-

Stop. Don’t.

Dolly had to stand, had to take a lap around the plaza. The chill of dusk was saturating the air, and the dark purple hues were beginning to lay over the city. Wyndon glowed in the dusk, and the streetlamps and electric billboards cast bold colors over the streets. Even the fountain in the hotel plaza cast a blue under glow to Dolly’s face. She sighed again as she sat back on its ledge.

This wasn’t the first time she had wondered these things. This wasn’t the first time she wondered about Hop. The question prevailed in her mind, and it had been growing stronger, more intense, and more frequent, the more time she spent with him.

Did she want him to kiss her? 

Why else would she be thinking of him like that?

The fountain beside her bubbled. The water flowed easily, jauntily, unaffected by the confusion tangled in the heart of the girl sitting beside it. Dolly tucked her knees to her chest and rested her head on them. 

She wished she didn’t. She wished she didn’t want him to. That would make everything a lot easier. She wished she didn’t think those thoughts, but she did. She wished she could just see him as her goofy, sunshiny, childhood best friend, and that was it. No more than that. Dolly wasn’t sure what he was anymore, but as she wondered about those thoughts that pressed into her mind, as she wondered at the joy and the friendship he offered her, she was terrified of the other question that had been looming. It was the question that so easily hid behind her iron defenses, the question that was so easily protected by her denials. And yet, that persistent question, that faint wondering, combed through her mind again and again.

Could she be…?

...No. They were just friends. Best friends.

She pushed the question away, as that was much easier. Perhaps she was just overthinking things, anyway. Dolly trailed her fingers through the water beside her, watching as the ripples tickled the marble stone. Perhaps she could go shower too, that may help her clear her mind. Part of her didn’t want to, in case she would run into Hop. Another part of her wanted to, for that very same reason.

Dolly looked up when she felt a rumble from her bag. Jackson appeared before her, and his eyebrows were furrowed as the glow of the fountain highlighted his gaze.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Dolly muttered as her eyes shifted to the ground.

“I can feel how upset you are, even when I’m in my Poké Ball,” Jackson said. “Remember we said we were going to be honest with each other? We’ll be attentive to each other's feelings? I don’t need to know how to read auras to know yours.”

Dolly paused, heaved out a sigh, and trailed her fingers through the water.

“It’s Hop.”

The only sound was the fountain beside them. She didn’t hear him swear, he didn’t storm into the hotel to find Hop, he didn’t ignite one of the hedges beside them in a blaze of fury. Dolly glanced up, only to see that Jackson’s expression hadn’t changed.

“What happened?” he asked.

Dolly’s eyebrows furrowed as Jackson sat beside her on the fountain ledge. He had untied the bandana from his arm and was fiddling with it in his paws.

“You’re… you’re not mad? You’re not going to go fling fireballs at him?” Dolly asked.

Jackson shook his head, feeling over the hem of the cloth.

“Why not…?” she asked.

Jackson thought for a second, gazing into the sky. The promise of night was blanketing Wyndon with an excited expectancy.

“He makes you happy.”

Dolly’s brow furrowed.

“You’re different when you’re with him,” Jackson continued. “Better, different. You open up, you smile more, you’re more confident in who you are. I want to be mad, trust me, after everything he did and said. But… I was being selfish. After seeing you with him recently…”

Jackson heaved out a sigh. He gazed at her as a smile ghosted his lips.

“I can’t hate someone who cares so much about you.”

Her heart thumped. Although she was constantly bombarded with that same accusation from the rest of her Pokémon team, when it was coming from Jackson, when there was no trace of joke or tease, it was harder to deflect. Dolly nodded as she curled her legs up and rested her chin on her knees.

“Not as much as I do, of course,” Jackson shrugged. “But even I can see that you’re happier when he’s around,”

Dolly couldn’t deny that one. She was also painfully awkward sometimes, too. 

“What made you change your mind?” Dolly asked. Jackson shrugged again, kicking his legs over the ledge of the fountain.

“I’ve been trying to be a better friend. Mateo used to be a really good listener and would listen to others better than I did. I liked that about him, and I want to be like that, too. I realized I was ignoring you when you said you both were fine,” Jackson explained.

He gazed at the sky as dusk continued to creep over the horizon. He was still feeling over the hem of the banana as he continued. 

“Ever since we were in Hammerlocke last, you were different,” Jackson said. “We were with Hop a lot, and you would just… you would always look at him, and he would make you smile, and he helped you love yourself again. I thought he would make it worse, after everything he did to you. But, I watched as the more time we spent with him, the harder he tried to be kind to you. It seemed like he was genuinely sorry. But don’t get me wrong, I still think he’s an idiot.”

Dolly laughed and nodded.

“So anyway,” he shrugged. “What happened? Did he ask to sleep with you again? Because if he did, I actually will kill him.”

“Not quite,” Dolly said as she breathed out another laugh. 

She explained her predicament as Jackson listened intently. She expressed her confusion, her frustration, her worry. Although she didn't go into full detail, Jackson raised his eyebrows when she mentioned the thoughts she couldn’t get out of her head.

“So, it’s not like he _did_ anything,” Dolly mumbled. “I’m just confused with everything about him. He’s my best friend, always has been, so why do I keep thinking about him? I don’t know what to do... I don’t know what I want.”

“Well it sure sounds like you want to kiss him.”

Dolly buried her face in her hands with a grunt of frustration. Jackson hopped off the ledge of the fountain and pumped his fists.

“Here’s how you do it,” he started, pointing a decisive finger at Dolly. “You say ‘ _Hey handsome, I wanna kiss you.’_ Then you move in, bat your eyelashes, pucker up, and bam! Mission accomplished.”

Jackson dusted his paws and beamed at her.

“Easy as pie.”

“Well gee why didn’t I think of that,” Dolly huffed as she rolled her eyes.

“Or, you can do this!” Jackson grinned. He popped his hip, tossed one of his ears behind his shoulder, and strutted away. He looked back over his shoulder at her, winked, and blew a kiss.

Dolly burst out laughing as her Cinderace sauntered around the plaza, swaying his hips and imitating her in a much too high-pitched voice. He gave her a few more examples of how she should kiss Hop, many of them ending with ‘and bam!’ and after a while, Dolly had to stop him with a huff.

“That doesn’t mean he wants to!” she said, crossing her arms again. “Maybe I don’t want to kiss him, maybe I’m just overwhelmed by everything going on.”

“Well if you do, now you’ve got like, eight great ideas,” Jackson said. 

“Maybe we should train some more,” Dolly mumbled, desperate to think of anything besides kissing Hop. “Prepare more for the finals.”

“Are you crazy?” Jackson asked. “Did you not _see_ how we _destroyed_ everyone in the semifinals?! Those matches were wicked!” 

Dolly grinned at the thought. The tension in her heart eased as they talked about that day’s battles, and what a great job everyone did. They also discussed that one bit where one of Rosa’s petals lodged itself into the commentator’s throat so there was just incoherent coughing over the speakers for a while.

As they talked, the lavender threads of dusk had merged with the indigos of night, and the crisp air bit at them again. Dolly and Jackson were the only ones in the hotel plaza at that point, and even the monorail above them was running less frequently. When Dolly checked the time, her eyebrows pulled together. She hadn’t gotten any texts or calls from Leon or Hop, either.

“I should probably go check on them,” Dolly muttered. 

Jackson nodded, she returned him to his Poké Ball, and made her way back into the hotel. It was empty, save the front desk clerks, and Hop pacing through the lobby. He glanced up, then rushed to her.

“There you are, have you heard anything from Lee?” he asked as his eyebrows furrowed.

She shook her head, and he bit his nail.

“I haven’t either,” he said quietly. “It’s not like him to bail, he always does what he says he’ll do. When he said he was going to become Champion, that’s what he did. He oughta be able to keep his own dinner plans”

“Kid’s sure got a mouth on him, huh?” came a voice from behind them.

Dolly and Hop turned to see Piers sauntering up to them, distinctly clashing with the elegant golds and fine fabrics in the lobby.

“If you were that noisy durin’ battle you’d unleash a whole new level of power, you know,” Piers sighed, slouching before them.

“Oh, pack it in, Piers,” Hop retorted. “I’m seriously worried here. What do you want?”

“If you’re looking for the Champion,” Piers continued. “I saw him headin’ to Rose Tower. Dunno what he’s up to, but I ran into him on the monorail platform.”

“Rose Tower,” Hop replied, scratching his chin. “What could he be doing there at this hour?”

“I dunno,” Piers shrugged. “But he told me to tell you he’s got some business up there, so he’ll be late to your dinner.”

“Will you take us, Piers?” Dolly asked, stepping towards the Gym Leader. “We don’t know the way,”

Piers sighed and gave a half-hearted nod. As they were walking out, she overheard Piers mutter to Hop.

“Does she always look at you like that when she asks you to do things? No wonder you follow her around like a lost Lillipup.”

“Pack it _in,_ Piers,” Hop growled.

Piers shrugged as he guided them into the maze of Wyndon. He guided them through the city, and by the time they met up with Marnie, found the monorail key, fought dozens of League staff, made it to Rose Tower, up the lift, and fought another dozen League staff, the dark of night was a thick blanket over Wyndon.

Dolly and Hop sprinted into the roof of Rose Tower, and their heads whipped around for any sight of Leon. They still didn’t know where he was, or what was going on, but neither of them liked how challenging it was to get to him. Although they successfully beat through all of the obstacles they faced, there was still the fact that they had to face them in the first place. Where was Leon, and why were there so many barriers to seeing him?

The tension in the air was thick as the sound of their steps echoed throughout the domed chamber. The silence crept under her skin, forcing up the hair on her neck. The pair stopped when they heard the clacking of heels on the hard tile.

“Welcome to Chairman Rose’s exclusive space.”

Dolly and Hop spun around to see Oleana standing before them, her arms crossed over her chest. It seemed like even the air was colder as Dolly watched the woman before her.

“So, you got through all of the special staff that I had ordered to stop you,” she continued. “I would expect nothing less of the Trainers handpicked by Champion Leon himself. But I am afraid it is now time for you to go home.”

Dolly’s skin prickled at the calm in her voice. Oleana ordered those blockades and barriers? But why? Dolly didn’t have time to mull it over, as suddenly Oleana took a threatening step toward them. Her calm demeanor was thrown to the side as her eyes bulged, and her hands thrust forward like talons.

“I will not allow anyone to disturb the great Chairman Rose! You shall be the first, Dolly!”

“Ms. Oleana, what are you talking about?” Hop yelled, backing Dolly up as Oleana stomped toward them. “We’re just trying to find Lee!”

“If I beat you to pieces, then the Champion will have no one to battle and will thus lose heart!” she seethed, ignoring Hop’s rationale. “In that state, he will listen to anything the chairman says!”

Dolly waved Hop off and gave him a nod of assurance. They had battled through a slew of Trainers on their way up here, and Dolly was sure her Pokémon were high enough level. If she beat Oleana, then they could explore this chamber and find Leon in peace. The crazed look in Oleana’s eyes made Dolly think that they wouldn’t want her behind their backs anyway. She told Hop to search for Leon, and she would take care of Oleana. Before either could respond to her, Oleana thrust out a Poké Ball and a Frosslass floated before them.

Dolly tossed out Jackson, and his fangs were already bared.

The two Pokémon skidded around the tile, and Jackson defeated the Frosslass with a powerful Pyro Ball attack. She switched him out for Rosa the second a Milotic appeared, and Dolly couldn’t help but watch in awe at the two beautiful Pokémon before her.

They danced and swayed around each other, Rosa stepping in time with the song of the Milotic. Petals and raindrops drizzled around them, tapping lightly against the shining tile of the floor. After another super effective move, the Milotic fell.

It was Jackson again as a Tsareena appeared before them. Dolly watched as each of Oleana’s Pokémon danced with incredible beauty and grace, their elegance apparent even as they fell in defeat. Jackson beat through Oleana’s Tsareena, through her Salazzle, then paused as Oleana screeched in anger. It echoed harshly throughout the empty room and cut against Dolly’s eardrums like sharp nails.

“You won’t make a fool of me again!” Oleana yelled from across the pitch. “I’ll show you, you dirty freak!”

Dolly gaped as Oleana threw out a Garbodor. Its weight and stench pounded into the floor, it glowed a fierce red, and the Garbodor Gigantamaxed before her eyes.

Dolly called Jackson back, then hurled his Poké Ball into the space behind her. Although her Fire-type wasn’t easily advantageous against Poison, her Cinderace’s higher level should serve them well.

The two behemoth Pokémon lurched forward, attacking with everything they had. Dolly looked nervously to the ground as the Garbodor’s mass dented the floor. They nearly reached the glass of the domed ceiling as they battled across the tiles of Rose Tower. Jackson landed hit after hit, and his Fire-type attacks blazed in the empty room. Condensation was steaming the roof above them, and Dolly’s eyes flicked to the glass ceiling each time an attack was thrown. Although a peaceful night was cloaked over Wyndon, chaos, fire, and garbage furled in the roof of Rose Tower.

This Garbodor was leagues more powerful than Oleana’s other Pokémon - perhaps it was the one she related to the most. Dolly had to apply a few max potions throughout their battle, despite Jackson’s higher level. It was taking much longer to beat than the other Pokémon.

They were almost there - Dolly could feel it in the air. Jackson was faring fine against the G-Max Poison attacks, but suddenly, Dolly caught Oleana’s eye from across the battlefield. The hair on her neck stood on end as Oleana smiled at her.

Oleana’s calm demeanor was back. 

Something wasn’t right.

This wasn’t right.

Dolly reached to her back to call back Jackson, because something about what was going to happen didn’t feel right.

Oleana’s Garbodor summoned a massive rock, and its sheer size almost broke through the ceiling of the tower. 

Dolly froze in horror.

It knew a Rock attack. 

Before Dolly could yell out, the Garbodor swung the slab of rock at Jackson. With a horrifying crack, he stumbled backwards.

Jackson fell, his body shrinking as he catapulted to the earth. A sandstorm started blistering around them, and the sand shot into Dolly’s skin, into her eyes, as she lurched forward. It took no time before the Rose Tower roof was a snow globe of sand, and Dolly could hardly see as the wind of the sandstorm tore against her face. She couldn’t see Jackson, but she heard the crunch as he hit the hard tile.

She felt it as if it were her own body.

It was like her own bones cracked, it was as if her own body ricocheted off the tile of Rose Tower.

Her fingers started to prick as the sand and rocks tore against her. It whipped around her face, stabbed into her eyes, into her fingers, into her arms, into her chest. As she stumbled through the storm, only one word repeated in her mind again and again.

No.

No.

_No._

Because there he was, lying motionless on the ground as the sandstorm whipped around them. She sprinted to him and crumbled beside him like sand. She shook him, and shook him again, and when he didn’t move, the tears stung her eyes, just as the sand stung her skin.

“Jackson!” she called over the howling of the wind.

He didn’t move, he didn’t open his eyes, not even when she pulled him onto her lap.

“Jackson please, not you too, not you, not you,” she began to sob. “Jackson wake up! _Get up!”_

He laid limp in her arms as she desperately clawed at his face, his arms, holding him to her. She laid him on her lap as her tears hit his fur.

“We’re still battling, you know!” Oleana screamed from across the tiles. “You can’t get to the chairman unless you get past me!”

The sandstorm was blustering, and just as the rocks and sand hit Dolly, they also hit the Garbodor. Every inch of it was pierced by the sandstorm of its own making, and soon, it too, fell, then laid motionless on the floor. 

And Dolly won.

As the sandstorm subsided, Dolly immediately scrambled to her bag, and tossed everything out that wasn’t a full restore.

Full restore, full restore.

She looked back at Jackson, lying limply. His bandana was still tied around his arm, and her mind shot back to when they sat on a fountain ledge, to how he so effortlessly supported her, just like he always had. Her mind shot back to how he smiled, and how he said he wanted to be a better friend.

No full restore.

Her mind shot back to when he curled his arms around her and warmed the air and the rest of her team by the train station on Route 10. Her mind shot back to how they were all dripping, shivering, and smiling as they all told her they loved her. 

She tore through her bag.

Max potion, max potion.

Her mind shot back to when he walked with her the entirety of the way to Spikemuth, blazing before her as a support to cling to. Her mind shot back to how he was always the ferocious reminder that she was worthy of love.

No max potion. 

Hyper potion, hyper potion.

Her mind shot back to the sun that glistened over Hammerlocke as he cried into her jacket. Her mind shot back to how he finally looked at her, finally laughed, and how he bumped her cheek with his fist, ensuring that they would always be partners.

No hyper potion.

Super potion, super potion.

Her mind shot back to when he pat the dirt over Mateo’s grave. Her mind shot back to how his silent tears blossomed into little white flowers. 

No super potion.

Potion, potion.

Her mind shot back to his grin in the Glimwood Tangle, to his whine when she wiped the curry sauce off his cheek. 

No potion.

Sitrus berry, Sitrus berry.

Her mind shot back to the dirt of the Wild Area, to him telling her he would battle by her side forever.

No Sitrus berry.

Oran berry, Oran berry.

Her mind shot back to him sitting on the pier in Hulbury with her, of how he set his paw on her thigh as a silent support, of how he never left her side during the walk to the first two graves.

No Oran berry.

Anything, anything. 

Her mind shot back to how he curled around her head to sleep the first night they met, how they talked about everything and nothing, and Dolly thought that how, even then, he showed her that she was worthy of love.

Nothing.

The tears were stinging her eyes. She had nothing. She had used everything and anything, and yet, here she was, again unprepared as a partner sacrificed himself for her. There was nothing she could do but hold him in her arms, to hold him as if everything was okay.

“Jackson,” she whispered. “Please, don’t go too...”

He still didn’t stir. 

She wove her fingers into the fur on his face. Tears speckled down.

“ _Please_ ,” she sobbed quietly, holding his head to her heart. “We’re partners, remember?”

The tears fell into his fur as she pet his ears, combed through the fur on his cheek. Everything he taught her, every time he protected her, reminded her, loved her when she didn’t feel worthy of loving, it all came swarming back as he laid there, motionless in her arms.

“Partners don’t leave each other, right, Jackson?” Dolly said through her sobs.

She brushed her thumb over the fur on his cheek. She bumped his cheek with her fist, only to let out another sob when he didn’t move.

“Partners, remember? We’ll stay by each other’s side forever, remember? Jackson, don’t you remember?”

The soft tap of tears was the only sound that echoed through the roof of Rose Tower.


	27. Renewal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hi all, sorry for the delayed update! I'm preparing to head back to school for the fall. My plan is to continue updating every week, but if that doesn't happen, then school prep is the reason. Thanks for understanding, and thanks for reading, as always! Please enjoy!
> 
> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 27 - Renewal**

Dolly couldn’t contain her hiccups that caught each breath. They were staggered, just as her thoughts were, when she held Jackson in her arms. She reached down to brush the fur on his cheek again, only to freeze when he coughed.

“Do me a favor, and never let me get to 1HP again,” Jackson groaned as his eyebrows pulled together. “I feel as bad as you smell.”

“Jackson?” Dolly breathed. “You’re… you’re alive?”

“If I die it’s got to be way cooler than from some literal pile of garbage,” Jackson scoffed. “Besides, I’ve already got one pile of garbage right here.” 

He patted her cheek, and Dolly smiled as the tears continued to tumble. She pulled him into her in the biggest hug she could muster and squeezed him with everything she had. Her cries morphed into half-sobs, half-laughs, when Jackson weakly squeezed her in return.

“Always the eloquent one,” she whimpered. “But, how did you…? How did you survive? Didn’t the sandstorm…?”

Jackson shrugged.

“I just… I had to hold on. I had to hold on so you wouldn’t be sad.”

Dolly’s face broke into a smile as the tears started pouring down again. Jackson chuckled and patted her cheek.

“I mean come on, if I wasn’t here, who would lead morning calisthenics? Hudson? He doesn’t even have arms.”

She leaned back, gazing at her first Pokémon partner. 

“I love you so much, Jackson.”

He grinned and tapped her cheek with his fist. 

“I love you too, partner.”

Suddenly, the clacking of heels echoed through the room. Dolly’s head whipped up to see Oleana storming toward them.

“This is inexcusable!” she screeched as she grabbed Jackson by the scruff of the neck. “I’ll do it myself!”

With a shocking amount of strength, she hurled him into the ground, and he skidded to a stop a few feet away. Oleana grabbed a fistful of Dolly’s hair and yanked her up next.

“Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me?!” she screeched in her face. “How many strings I’ve had to pull to keep you in the Challenge? How many late nights, how many hours of overtime? My hair is falling out because of you. But no,”

Oleana threw Dolly to the ground again. 

“The chairman thought ‘you needed a chance,’ thought ‘you could be useful,’ when practically everyone else on the League board wanted you gone. All for what? A little _freak? I_ can’t talk to Pokémon, and I’ve gotten him this far!”

Dolly trembled, covering her head with her arms as Oleana’s sharp heel hovered above her. Then, she set it down, and Oleana’s calm demeanor was back.

“No. I have a better idea,” she whispered. She turned to Jackson who was still struggling to stand. “1 HP, huh? Challenger Dolly can’t get in my way if she loses her Cinderace. All the Wishing Stars have been collected, and with you out of the way, the chairman will finally see that _I’m_ the one who helped him succeed in his goal!”

Dolly’s eyes widened as Oleana pulled a pocketknife from within her shirt. With a menacing _click_ , a blade appeared.

 _“Jackson!”_ Dolly screamed, scrambling to stand. Oleana turned and kicked Dolly’s foot out from under her. Another crack echoed through the room when Oleana stomped on her ankle.

“Everything I’ve done,” Oleana heaved as she turned again, starting towards Jackson. “Everything I’m about to do... is for the chairman.”

Jackson laid there, frozen in place as Oleana loomed over him. Still weak from their battle, he could barely conjure a flicker of fire as she lifted her arm into the air. Then, the knife clattered to the floor. A Poké Ball had flung through the air and hit Oleana in the back of the head, and a satisfying _thunk_ echoed throughout the room.

Oleana swayed for a second, then fell to the floor.

Dolly whipped her head around to see Hop grinning and pumping a fist.

“Ha! Finally perfected my Poké Ball throw!”

They both rushed to Jackson’s side as he struggled to sit up. Hop deftly pulled Jackson up, and applied some medicine from his own bag.

“Are you alright?” Dolly asked.

Jackson nodded. His brow slowly furrowed as he looked between the two. He stared into Hop’s eyes.

“Dolly, can you translate for me?” Jackson said slowly.

She nodded, glancing between Jackson and Hop.

“Tell him I said thank you. And that I’m sorry.”

Dolly opened her mouth, only to pause as Hop held a hand up. He smiled and set a hand on Jackson’s shoulder. 

“I know what he said. I could never ask for a better partner for you, Dolls. Jackson, you’re loyal, adamant, and a true friend. Everything you’ve done, you’ve done it to protect Dolly. So really, I should be thanking you.”

Jackson grinned and finally nodded. He turned again to Dolly.

“But can you tell him if he ever hurts you again, I’ll mangle him in his sleep?”

Dolly let out a laugh and translated for Hop. He nodded.

“That’s fair.”

They finally stood, and Dolly curled her arms around her Cinderace. They squeezed each other as hard as they could. 

“Thank you, Jackson, for showing me and helping me believe that I’m worthy of love.”

Jackson was grinning ear to ear, then he stepped back and pumped his fists.

“You sure are, you garbage pile! Now put me in my Poké Ball, I’m friggin’ exhausted.”

Dolly gave him a smooch on his forehead as he whined, then returned him to his Poké Ball. Hop led Dolly to where Leon and Rose stood gazing over the cityscape. Dolly only caught the tail end of their conversation, and Leon said something about the Championship match. The two men turned as Hop and Dolly approached.

“Lee…” Hop started. “You never showed when you were supposed to, so I got worried that something had happened… Then all those League staff and Ms. Oleana coming after us… what’s going on?”

Rose curled a hair around his finger and heaved out a sigh. 

“I must apologize to you, Hop, if we’ve made you worry at all. There are times when two people just can’t seem to have an honest discussion with one another,” he said as he glanced at Leon, then turned again to face the sparkling view of Wyndon. “Sometimes our pride just gets in the way.”

Dolly’s eyebrows furrowed as Rose turned to her.

“Dolly, you can talk to Pokémon, yes?”

She nodded.

“Interesting. I may-”

“Chairman Rose,” Leon interrupted. Dolly had never seen the glare that was etched on his face. “We’ve already discussed this.”

The grand city sparkled behind them as the two most powerful men in Galar stared at one another. After a moment, Rose smiled, and twirled his hair around his finger.

“Very well,” he said, turning again to the skyline behind him.

Leon’s brow furrowed deeper as he glanced at Rose, then back to the two in front of him. 

“Never mind any of this, Hop, Dolly. Let’s head back to the hotel, then we’ll all grab dinner together, yeah? It’s on me, so you can order whatever you fancy.”

He glared at Rose, who was still gazing over Wyndon. 

“If you’ll excuse us, Chairman Rose… I do hope you’ll watch tomorrow’s match. It’s sure to be one for the history books.”

Leon and Hop turned, but Dolly was still watching Rose as he gazed over the city.

“Dolls?”

Dolly turned, and the trio headed back down the lift. She was trying to keep up with the two brothers, though her ankle was throbbing where Oleana had stomped on her, and she winced with every step. They finally made it to the lift, and Hop set his hands on his hips. 

“What’s taking you so long?” he asked.

“Just enjoying the view of Wyndon,” she smiled. “Not sure how many other times I’ll be able to see it like this.”

He squinted his eyes and watched as she favored her other foot. The lift jolted and she stumbled forward, grimacing as she tried to balance.

“Dolls!”

“I’m fine!”

“What’re we yelling about?” Leon asked, turning to the pair.

“Oleana stomped on Dolly’s ankle with those mad heels when we battled her,” Hop huffed as he crossed his arms. “And now she’s trying to be all big and tough and pretend like it didn’t happen.”

“I’m not saying it didn’t happen, I’m saying that I’m fine! If I walk on it I’m sure that’ll help.”

Hop squinted his eyes again.

“Battle with Oleana…? What are you talking about?” Leon asked.

Dolly delved into their struggle of trying to get to him, ever since the semifinals. Hop offered sections of the story as well, enthusing to his brother about Piers, and Dolly enthusing about Marnie. Leon listened as his brow slowly furrowed deeper.

“Interesting…” Leon said, then he heaved out a sigh. “I’ve never fully understood Chairman Rose, or Oleana for that matter, but I’m glad you two are alright. Sorry for what a mess I’ve caused you.”

Hop beamed up at his brother. 

“I think I’ll be able to forgive you after a delicious dinner, I’m starved.”

The lift finally landed on the first floor, and the doors slid open. Hop briskly walked over to Dolly and scooped her up in his arms as he and Leon stepped out into the lobby of Rose Tower.

“H-Hop!” she yelped, bracing herself by clutching at his shoulders. “What’re you doing?! Put me down!”

Hop nonchalantly continued forward. 

“I don’t fancy having to wait for you to limp everywhere we go.”

Her cheeks burned as her eyes flicked to Leon, who raised an eyebrow at her. With a bemused smirk, he winked, and she was sure her face looked like a Tomato berry by that point.

“That doesn’t mean you have to carry me like I’m some frilly princess,” she huffed. “I can ride on Hudson.”

“‘Fraid they won’t let a Mudsdale on the monorail, Dolls.”

“Yeah, or a Charizard,” Leon added with a sad sigh.

“Shut it,” she growled at Leon.

“What happened to you accepting help, huh? Thought you were getting better at that?” Hop asked, still casually strolling forward as she clutched at his shirt. 

She grumbled a retort as Hop raised an eyebrow at her, and she glared at Leon again when he chuckled. 

Dolly at least convinced Hop to let her walk through the restaurant. They enjoyed a delicious dinner together, joking together quite a bit. Dolly was happy to see Leon and Hop interact so excitedly together - it seemed as though they both missed each other’s company. They also ate like ravenous Munchlax, and Dolly didn’t even try to hide her grimace.

They ordered seconds, figured it was a beautiful night, so they hauled their food and drinks to the local park and tossed out all of their Pokémon. There was hardly enough room in the grass for all of them, but Dolly didn’t mind the cozy and close atmosphere.

After diffusing what was almost a potato-themed food fight between her Cinderace and Weavile, Dolly heaved out a contented sigh as she slumped onto a park bench. The restaurant offered her a collection of swirly straws, and she was determined to utilize them. She sipped on her to-go chocolate milk as she gazed at the stars over her head.

What did Rose want from her? What was he going to ask? Every time she and Rose had a conversation, they were cut short by something. And how Oleana mentioned how frustrating it was to keep her in the Gym Challenge… What did that mean? Why would she and Rose struggle so valiantly to keep her going, especially when Bede was so quickly dismissed back in Stow-on-Side?

The moon’s glow cast a light blue sheen over Wyndon, and the streetlights sparkled in the night. The air was crisp, and a slight wind blew through the excited conversations that were taking place in the park. Dolly sighed again and rubbed over her face.

And then everything with Jackson… he almost died. She almost killed him.

She rested her head in her hands and stared at the ground.

If it wasn’t for his sheer force of will, she would be without one of her best friends. Would she ever be prepared enough? In Hammerlocke she stuffed her bag with as much medicine as she could hold, and it still wasn’t enough. Would all of her Pokémon crumble because of her? Would all of them meet an early end, just as she predicted so long ago when she first had to decide on a starting partner?

Her eyebrows furrowed as she sighed again.

She was trying so hard to take better care of herself and of all of her Pokémon, but would it ever be enough? Could she ever really protect them? They were about to face the greatest challenge of all, the strongest Trainer in the region, and maybe even the world.

Could she really do this?

Was it really worth it?

Would her selfish desire take the life of yet another dear friend?

She lifted her head when someone sat beside her.

“You’re not very subtle,” Jackson said. “You breathe really loudly.”

Dolly smiled and she affectionately rubbed his ears.

“What, you’re getting all sentimental, now?” he grinned. “Thought we already went through all that?”

Dolly laughed and rolled her eyes, but still kept her hand on his paw.

“It wasn’t your fault, Dolly,” he said after a moment. His smirk was replaced with a soft smile. “I want you to know that. I was doing fine, but that Garbodor had that critical hit rock move out of nowhere. I don’t blame you for anything at all. I was perfectly fine to keep battling, and I would have done exactly what you did.”

Dolly sat up straighter, and her eyebrows furrowed.

“We’ve all been talking about it, actually,” Jackson said as he gestured to the rest of their team scattered around the park. “You’re much more careful than you used to be. We’ve always trusted you, but we’re also much more confident in how you lead us. I’m sure you’ve noticed how much better we’ve all been battling.”

“I have noticed that,” Dolly said as she scratched her chin. “It seems like you’re all cleaner in your attacks, and there seems to be more power behind them.”

“And that’s because now that you’re taking care of yourself, you’re taking better care of us,” Jackson said as he pat her on the shoulder. “So, good job. And that’s from everyone on the team.”

Her eyebrows pulled together as her eyes started to burn. Dolly sniffled, and Jackson rolled his eyes. A few tears trickled down, and Jackson squished her cheeks with his paws.

“Oh cut it out,” Jackson laughed. “Seems like you cry just as often, though,”

“I can’t help it!” Dolly whimpered through her squished cheeks. “I just really needed to hear that.”

Jackson wiped her tears off her face, then wiped his paws on her sleeves. He glanced behind her, and his smirk returned.

“I think someone else wants a turn.”

“What?”

Jackson nodded his head, and Dolly turned just in time to watch Leon jab at Hop with his elbow and gesture towards her. Hop squinted, then when Leon waggled his eyebrows and made kissy faces, Hop shoved at him, Leon shoved him back, and Hop stumbled towards her. When Hop looked her way again, Dolly whipped her head back to Jackson.

“What do I do?!” she whispered harshly.

“What do you mean, what do you do?” Jackson scoffed. “You talk to him like a normal person.”

“What if I say something stupid?”

“He’s probably used to it.”

Jackson pushed off the rest of her tears, smoothed down her hair, and pat her on the head.

“When he is trying to comprehend whatever you said, just kiss him. I need to go anyway, I need to prove to Rouge that mashed potatoes are definitely better than potato chips.”

Before Dolly could respond, Jackson bolted away, and Hop took his place beside her on the bench.

“So, um, beautiful night, yeah?” Hop said. She smiled at the sight of him and nodded. “Minus all of us getting attacked by Oleana and the secret league force, you know.”

Dolly breathed out a laugh and nodded.

“Are you okay? You’ve been crying,” Hop asked as his eyebrows pulled together.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Dolly said as she glanced to the ground. “Jackson was just being all sweet out of nowhere.”

Her nerves had started to subside as Hop delved into conversation with her, talking about the upcoming Champion Cup, about his Pokémon team, about her Pokémon team. They eventually landed on the topic of Wooloo wool, which she was surprised to see they had yet to exhaust that topic. Neither of them were aware of the four Pokémon gazing at her and Hop sitting together.

“Oh my,” Rosa sighed. “She is as beautiful as the moon. She is glowing.”

“No less than he, Rosa,” Theodore said with a chuckle. “Look at how he smiles when he speaks with her.”

“Yup,” Hudson said. “He’s crazy about her. Doubt she realizes it, though, poor lad.”

Dolly’s laugh echoed through the park, and Theodore chuckled when Hop’s smile grew because of it.

“Indeed,” Theodore nodded. “Although our Lady has a slew of charming characteristics, she is not the most perceptive girl...”

“Not perceptive?” Rouge scoffed. “I think the accurate term would be emotionally constipated.”

They all nodded.

Theodore thoughtfully brought a feather to his chin and paused for a moment as he gazed at them. He watched how Hop smiled, watched how he leaned towards her whenever she spoke, and watched how he had to stop himself from tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Yes,” Theodore said softly. “It seems the sun has fallen in love with the moon.”

Rosa coughed out a sob, and Dolly whipped her head to them.

“Oh, how romantic,” Rosa blubbered. “What poetry.”

“What’s poetry?” Dolly asked.

Rosa couldn’t speak through her tears as she clung to Hudson’s leg.

“Theodore said the moon glows brighter because of the sun,” Hudson explained with a shrug. “I’d have to agree with him.”

“Um, okay,” Dolly said as her eyes shifted between her Pokémon. "That is how the moon works."

“Um, are you cold?” Hop asked suddenly. Dolly turned back to him. “You’re shivering.”

“Oh I’m fine,” she said. She had accidentally left her jacket in the stadium after the flurry of activity after the semifinals. She figured she’d be fine without it until she went back for the finals, but the crisp night air of Wyndon seemed to think otherwise.

Hop sighed, rolled his eyes, and shrugged off his jacket. He slung it around her shoulders and clasped the first button at the top.

“You probably have the lowest body temperature of anyone I know.”

“Hop,” Dolly grumbled as her cheeks warmed, especially when Rosa started blubbering again. “What about you, aren’t you cold? You don’t need to do this.”

Dolly reached to unclasp the button but Hop gently lowered her hands.

“I want you to wear it,” he said softly. “It looks better on you, anyway.”

Dolly’s eyes flicked to his face, to his soft gaze, to his smile, and she glanced down again as the Butterfree started flapping. She motioned to mumble a retort, only to stop as a voice came from behind them.

“Are you going to kiss his forehead now?”

Dolly and Hop both jumped and whipped their heads around. Leon was standing behind their bench, raising an eyebrow as he grinned slyly at the two.

“Ugh,” she grumbled as Leon laughed and tousled her hair. “Why do you always come in at the most embarrassing times?”

“That’s what big brothers are for. If you both are done stuttering at each other, I wanted to say goodbye.”

They both nodded, stood, and each gave Leon a hug goodbye.

“One more thing, Dolly,” Leon said as he turned to leave. “I don’t think it’ll come to this, but if Rose or Oleana come up to you tomorrow without me there, you let me know, okay?”

Her eyebrows pulled together, and she nodded. It didn’t take long before Leon’s solemn expression was replaced with his signature grin.

“Excellent,” Leon said. “I’m hoping to see you in the finals tomorrow.”

“You better believe it,” she grinned in return. “I think it’s time to kick out Galar’s dusty old Champion.”

Leon’s jaw dropped and Dolly giggled.

“Dusty?! _Old?!_ Well that’s the last time I buy _you_ anything,” he scoffed. “Now scram, I’ve got stuff to do that’s more important than being insulted by a four-foot pipsqueak.”

Dolly laughed when he ruffled her hair, and Leon waved a goodbye to her and Hop. Hop stretched and checked his phone.

“Yeah, it’s getting late. We should probably get going, too.”

Dolly nodded, and as she motioned her Pokémon team over to her, Hop bent down to pick her up again.

“Wait wait wait!” she said, waving her hands out in front of her.

“We’ve already talked about this.”

“I know, but aren’t your arms tired?”

“You probably weigh as much as my Pincurchin. And no, you underestimate how sturdy these guns are,” he said, and continued to prove his point by pursing his lips and flexing.

“Oh my,” Theodore chuckled as they walked up to them. “How risqué.”

“Hop,” Dolly mumbled. “Not in front of everyone…”

“Oh, just pretend we’re not here,” Theodore hummed. He turned and swooped his wings out to block her view of the rest of her Pokémon. Dolly rolled her eyes again when half of them peeked through his feathers.

“It doesn’t hurt so much anymore anyway, Hop, really,” she said as she turned back to him. “Walking on it would probably help.”

Dolly breathed out a laugh when his lower lip stuck out. 

“Maybe I like carrying you,” he muttered. “Maybe I like helping you. Maybe I like being close to you. Ever think of that?”

“Is this… is this a guilt trip?” Dolly asked incredulously. “Because I won’t let you carry me?”

“No!” Hop huffed, though the corner of his mouth twitched up. “Yes.”

“You are so weird,” she said as she breathed out a laugh. “I don’t want you to carry me though, Hop, really.”

Hop let out a melancholy sigh, and Dolly rolled her eyes again.

“I guess I’d let you hold my hand if you wanted, though,” she mumbled.

“Oh ho,” Theodore chuckled. “My Lady, have a soft spot for those sad eyes, do we?”

“Theodore!” Dolly huffed as her cheeks stained red. Her Corviknight chuckled again, and Hop wove his fingers around hers with a smile.

“What a smile on that boy,” Theodore hummed as he turned. “And on you as well, my Lady. Rosa was correct in her description. You are glowing.”

Dolly grumbled again. She was probably glowing red at that point, since her face felt like molten lava.

“Tally ho, then,” Theodore said as he waved them off. “Off you go. We’ll give you some time alone.”

Dolly motioned to retort, only to roll her eyes as Hop pulled her forward by her hand. He had the ghost of a smile on his lips, and those familiar Butterfree were fluttering when Dolly lightly swung their hands as they walked. They didn’t even make it out of the park before they saw a couple families walking by. There were quite a few children, and when Hop smiled to himself, Dolly’s heart softened. She always knew Hop loved kids, but for some reason now, that characteristic hit her a bit differently. 

The children recognized them, and they swarmed around Hop and Dolly with excited cheers. They pestered them for pictures, and Dolly was grateful for Hop’s finesse with large groups. He cracked a joke, they all laughed, and grouped around for a picture. She felt a little more secure in the crowd when Hop wove his arm around her waist. A little more sweaty for some reason, too.

One of the parents took the photo, and Dolly stepped away from the group, as she wasn’t quite accustomed to children climbing on her. Hop didn’t seem to mind. As Hop lifted one onto his shoulders, his shirt lifted too, and the dimples on his back peeked through. Then, Dolly’s eyes trailed a little lower. 

Hm… Hop certainly was fit.

“What. A. View.” Rouge whistled from beside her.

Dolly jumped as her Bellossom agreed.

“He is so handsome,” Rosa swooned. “Are you admiring him, my Dolly?”

“What?! No!”

“You were totally staring at his ass,” her Weavile grinned.

“I was not!” Dolly spat as her face flared red. Rouge rolled her eyes.

“Sooo, when are you going to tell him you’ve got it bad?”

“Never, because I don’t.”

“Maybe I’ll just tell him for you,”

“Oh right, how’s that conversation going to go?” Dolly grumbled. “You growl at him and he doesn’t respond?”

When Rouge didn’t reply, Dolly glanced to the side. Her Weavile was standing there with a devious grin, flipping Dolly’s phone around in her claws. Dolly’s eyes widened as her mind flashed back to her hotel in Circhester when Rouge texted Hop before. A knot formed in her throat, then, she threw her hands up. 

“You know what? This is my fault,” Dolly said. “It’s my fault for assuming I could let my Pokémon out for a nice night walk together. You’ve just added yourself to the list of Pokémon who can’t be around me and Hop at the same time.”

Suddenly Hop turned, setting the child on the ground and waving goodbye to the group.

“Did you say something, Dolls?”

“Geez,” Rouge sighed. “He calls you by a pet name? What do you call him? Honey Buns? Sugar Pecs?”

“It’s a _nickname_ , not a _pet name,_ ” Dolly scoffed. 

“I have never heard anyone call you that besides him,” Rosa wondered, scratching her chin. “And did he not get upset when the Dragon Gym Leader called you that once?”

“How did you know that?!” Dolly sputtered.

“I know everything, my Dolly.”

“That’s it,” Rouge said. “I’m stepping in. The longer you take to tell him you’re in love with him, the more I’m going to tell him.”

Dolly’s eyes squinted threateningly. 

“...You wouldn’t.”

Rouge shrugged and started tapping on Dolly’s phone. Hop reached into his pocket, checked his phone, and turned back with a smirk.

“Dolls? I’m standing right here, why are you texting me?”

Dolly’s eyes widened as her head whipped to Rouge. 

“It wasn’t me! It was my Weavile!”

Hop’s jaw dropped, then broke into a grin as he made his way towards them. 

“No way! Your Weavile can text?”

She scrambled to try and grab her phone back, only to have Rosa smack her hand as Rouge skipped away. Dolly’s eyes switched from her Weavile to Hop, who looked down to his phone again. Suddenly he raised his eyebrows, and a small smirk appeared on his face.

“What?! What did she tell you?!” Dolly yelped, eyes tearing between the two.

Hop laughed as his cheeks reddened.

“Rouge! What are you telling him?!”

Her Weavile shrugged. 

“Told him when he picked up that kid, you were totally staring at his ass.”

 _“Rouge!”_ she screeched. “You can’t just- I wasn’t- ugh!”

“And,” her Weavile continued. “I told him that you thought those pants are just tight enough to nicely accent his… features.”

Dolly’s jaw dropped.

“Okay, _no,_ I did _not_ say that, _she_ said that.”

Rouge looked back to Hop, and again he tried to hide his smirk as his cheeks tinged darker. Dolly buried her face in her hands. 

“I don’t want to know what she just said. I could just die right here right now. That would be fine with me.”

Suddenly Ophelia and Theodore stomped over, and Theodore flapped his wings at Rouge. 

“Alright Rouge, Rosa, that’s enough,” Ophelia sighed, scooping Rosa up in her arms and plucking the phone from Rouge’s claws.

“Can you not see how flustered she is when you reveal our Lady’s secrets?” Theodore huffed, shooing the Weavile away. “We must help and not hinder our Trainer.”

“I was just trying to help her speed up the process!” Rouge pouted, trying to see through Theodore’s feathers. 

“That’s not something you get to decide,” Ophelia sighed, handing the phone back to Dolly. With an encouraging nod, Dolly’s Haxorus and Corviknight bumbled away, Bellossom and Weavile in tow. After another moment, they flashed back into their Poké Balls.

Hop took a step towards her, and Dolly turned away. She couldn’t even look at him, now that Rouge spilled that embarrassing information. She really needed to pay better attention to when she let them out of their Poké Balls... Hop gently bumped her shoulder with his. 

“So... you’re not denying it?” Hop asked quietly, raising an eyebrow.

She stared at the ground as her cheeks flared red. She turned her head away, and Hop breathed out a laugh. 

“You don’t have to be embarrassed, Dolls. Here, I’ll even it out. I’ll tell you something embarrassing too. One of the Team Yell members pantsed me right before my battle with Piers. I was wearing my ‘I love Yampers’ pattern that day, too.”

Dolly snorted.

“And,” Hop continued. “Back in Motostoke when I said Lee told me that Rose picks his nose…”

Dolly turned as Hop paused. His eyes swiveled around suspiciously, then he leaned in to whisper. 

“I just said that because _I_ pick my nose.”

Dolly burst out laughing as she shoved his arm. 

“Oh, stuff it, no you don’t.”

“It’s true, all men do it,” Hop said, throwing his palms up in defense. “I can no longer deny my dirty secret.”

Dolly threw her head back and laughed, the shame dissipating from her shoulders.

“Come on,” Hop said as he bumped her arm again. “Let’s get going, if you’re done staring at my ass, that is.”

Dolly gasped and smacked his arm as Hop laughed. She pursed her lips, though she did let him hold her hand again when he asked. After trekking through downtown Wyndon, they finally made it to the Rose of the Rondelands. Dolly shoved her hands in her pockets for fear of another batch of paparazzi and heaved out a sigh of relief to see the lobby was empty as they stepped up to the front counter.

“Hi, checking in for Challenger Dolly,” she told the front desk clerk.

The clerk smiled and nodded, typed something onto his computer, and handed her a hotel card.

“Enjoy your stay, miss. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable.”

Dolly nodded, and Hop stepped up next.

“Challenger Hop,”

The clerk nodded again and typed onto his computer. He then typed something else on his computer. He clicked something a few times, then typed something. His eyebrows pulled together.

“You said Challenger Hop?”

Hop nodded.

The clerk typed something, clicked something, typed something, and pursed his lips.

“I’m afraid your reservation isn’t set until tomorrow.”

“What?”

The clerk nodded, and Dolly and Hop glanced at one another.

“Are there any other open rooms?” Hop asked. “Anything’s fine, I just need one for tonight.”

The clerk typed something, then bit his lip.

“I’m afraid not, we’re booked through the end of the month.”

Hop’s eyebrows pulled together, and the clerk nodded again.

“I’ll call around to see if any other hotels in the area have vacancies.”

Hop nodded, and he and Dolly stepped aside as the clerk started dialing.

“Aw, man, this is rubbish,” Hop grumbled as he scuffed at the ground with his shoe. “I really wanted to stay in a fancy hotel.”

“Yeah I feel like my net worth has gone up by just standing in here,” Dolly nodded. “There’s billions of nice hotels around Wyndon, though, I’m sure he’ll find something. You can always sleep in the lobby, though you won’t look very fancy.”

“Thanks Dolls,” Hop said as he rolled his eyes.

They heard the click of the phone, and they turned back to the clerk.

“Any good news?” Hop asked.

“Unfortunately not,” the clerk said. “Everything in Wyndon is booked for the Champion Cup. I can offer you a voucher for cab service if you’d like to stay in Hammerlocke, but I’m afraid that’s the closest city with any vacancies.”

“Hammerlocke…?” Hop sighed.

“Just stay with me,” Dolly said as she turned to him. “There’s a couch in the rooms, right?”

The clerk nodded.

“See?” she said. “Yeah, just stay with me, don’t go all the way to Hammerlocke.”

“I don’t want to impose on your space again,” Hop sighed. “Plus, Jackson might burn my face off.”

“It’s not a big deal, I’ll tell him to leave you alone,” Dolly smiled. “We slept together last night, we can just do it again tonight.”

In the corner of her eye, she saw the clerk raise his eyebrows.

“I-I mean… in the tent, you know, together. Next to each other,” she coughed.

“I’ll call Lee, he might have a room,” Hop said. “I’ll see if I can stay with him first.”

They took a seat on the leather couches on the lobby, and Dolly fiddled with the embroidery on the fancy pillow on the couch as Hop dialed. This pillow probably cost more than her house did. 

“Hey Lee, yeah everything’s fine,” Hop said as he rested his chin on his fist. “Do you have a hotel room at the Rose of the Rondelands? They messed mine up and they’re saying my reservation isn’t until tomorrow, and there’s no rooms left because of the Championship Cup.”

Hop’s eyes flicked to hers, and he turned away slightly.

“Well, yeah,” he muttered. “Hers was fine.”

Hop’s eyes flicked to hers again, then he stood and walked far enough away to where Dolly had to strain to hear his muffled sentence.

“ _No_ , Lee, I can’t ask her to do that,” he huffed.

She tried to discreetly turn her ear towards him.

“I don’t want to be creepy!” he hissed. “Come on, I’ll just come get it, I don’t care.”

He huffed again and turned away as the tips of his ears tinged pink.

“What’s that have to do with anything?” he grumbled.

Hop turned slightly, glanced back, and Dolly quickly turned her head. Wow, that curtain sure was interesting. Look at that fabric. Hop turned away again and stepped further away.

“Well… yeah… she did offer…”

Dolly leaned in again as she fumbled with the embroidery. She could barely make out the words that Hop whispered.

“But you know what I told you about last night with the Beartic…” he said softly. “Wh-what if she… what if she… touches me like that again...? And what if... what if I can’t stop myself this time...?”

Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together.

“I can’t just assume that!” Hop huffed. “I’m not some animal. Or some Gym Leader.”

She wove her fingers under the braids of the embroidered pillow as she leaned closer.

“She’s already stressed, Lee, I don’t want her to have to worry about me too.”

Hop paused, then huffed again.

“Okay well how do you propose I help a girl relieve tension?”

Hop furrowed his eyebrows. Then, they shot up again as his cheeks flared red. As each second passed, his face grew a deeper shade until he was practically purple.

“L-Lee!” Hop spat. “Stop it! I’m not going to do that! You’re not helping!”

Dolly’s own throat hurt with how harsh that whisper was.

“I don’t care if it’s been scientifically proven! Wait, who was that? Was that Sonia?”

Dolly raised her eyebrows. She combed through the now-fraying embroidery of the pillow.

“Who was _that? Raihan?!”_

The color drained from Hop’s face.

“Lee…” he whispered. “…Am I on speaker phone…? _”_

A moment passed, and Hop slapped his forehead as his cheeks flared red again.

“Stop,” Hop groaned. “Stop. Stop it. All of you. Stop. No, Sonia, I don’t want your advice on sedu- I don’t care if you know what she likes Raihan she said you weren’t even good at it! Augh, I can’t believe you both heard all of that… Stop. _Stop it._ Okay I’m hanging up goodbye.”

Hop abruptly turned, and a rip echoed through the lobby. Dolly discreetly shoved the torn embroidery between the couch cushions and turned back to him.

“What did he say?”

“Nothing useful,” Hop grumbled. He wasn’t looking at her, and his face was still beet red. “He’s got a room, but he’s all the way in Hammerlocke with the key and doesn’t even know if he’ll be back tonight.”

“Just stay with me, then, come on,” Dolly said.

“Really, Dolls, I couldn’t,” Hop sighed. “...I shouldn’t.”

“It’s okay, I want you to.”

Hop sighed and rubbed his hands over his face.

“...Fine.”

As Dolly and Hop stepped into the lift, she assured herself that everything would be fine. Everything would be completely normal. They were best friends, and it wasn’t like anything weird would happen, right?

Right...?


	28. Completely Normal and Not Weird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 28 - Completely Normal and Not Weird**

Right.

This was normal. Completely normal. There was nothing weird about this at all.

Dolly was sure Hop recognized that too as they stood in the lift and stared at the door in front of them. The tinny elevator music scratched around them and Dolly jumped when Hop cleared his throat.

“Are you okay?” Dolly asked.

“Yup.”

“Okay.”

Dolly rocked on her heels and glanced around the lift. She put her hands in her pockets, only to take them out and hold them behind her, then she put them in her pockets again. She had every intention to lightly and casually whistle along to the elevator music, but her dry mouth only produced a faint _‘ppflbllff.’_ So much for that. She peered out of the corner of her eye. Hop was clenching his jaw.

“Your face is all red,” she said.

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is.”

Hop cleared his throat again.

“Are you sick?” Dolly asked as she turned to him.

“Sick of rubbish brothers and his rubbish friends, yeah,” Hop grumbled.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Dolly turned towards the lift doors again. She rocked on her heels, stretched, put her hands in her pockets, then took them out again and held them behind her. Her tongue felt awfully strange sitting in her mouth. Hop shifted his weight to his other foot.

“Did you say something?” she asked.

“Nope.”

“Oh. I thought you said something.”

“I didn’t.”

Dolly nodded.

This was completely normal.

After an eternity, the lift doors finally slid open and they stepped out. After walking up and down the hallway twice, they realized they were on the wrong floor, stepped back into the lift, went up a floor, just to realize they _were_ on the correct floor, stepped back into the lift, and after another eternity, Dolly stuck her hotel card into the lock and finally pushed open the door.

As soon as Dolly flung her backpack to the floor, Jackson flashed out of his Poké Ball.

“Alright!” he grinned as he looked around the room. “This place is _fancy_. Finally a hotel room that fits my caliber.”

Jackson trotted into the room and gazed around at the ornate decorations. He turned around, then froze.

Hop cleared his throat.

Jackson glanced to Hop, glanced to Dolly, glanced to Hop again, then glanced to Dolly again.

Dolly glanced to Hop, then glanced to Jackson. Her cheeks warmed despite herself.

“He’s staying with us.”

“Why?”

“There’s no other open hotel rooms. Don’t kill him, I asked him to stay.”

Jackson glanced to Hop, glanced to Dolly, glanced to the one bed in the room, glanced to Dolly, glanced to Hop, then glanced to the couch against the wall.

“Dibs on the couch!” he called, then launched himself onto the furniture.

“What!” Dolly called. “No! You’re staying in the bed with me!”

“ _No_ way,” Jackson said as he kicked his feet up. “Last night was the first night I got some decent sleep without you grabbing at me. If he’s here, you’ll grab at him instead. If you don’t like it when he touches you then I’ll burn his fingers off, but something tells me that won’t be the case.”

“ _Jackson_ ,” Dolly huffed as she marched to her Cinderace.

A little flame burst over his fur wherever she tried to poke at. Her growling didn’t faze him, because he only raised an eyebrow at her. He shrugged, turned over, and let out a yawn.

“Just at least wait until I fall asleep before you start kissing.”

The heat blazed in her face at the words, and she quickly glanced to Hop again. She stood straight, tossed her hair behind her, and tried to look very in control of the situation.

“H-he… um… you’re too tall to fit on the couch anyway,” Dolly said as she shrugged delicately. “So really he’s just being thoughtful.”

She heard kissing noises and smacked Jackson with the throw pillow.

“Um,” Hop said as he cleared his throat. “S-so, I, um, I can sleep on the floor, that’s fine with me,”

“You don’t have to do _that_ ,” Dolly sighed. “That’s just as bad as sleeping in the lobby.”

“W-well, I, then…” Hop mumbled.

Jackson stood, pushed behind Dolly’s shoulders, then sat her on the bed. He walked to Hop, pulled him by the shoulders, and sat him next to Dolly. He gave them both a pat on the hand, then laid on the couch again.

“I-it’s a big bed, anyway,” Dolly said as she shrugged again.

“Yes, you’re right,” Hop said.

Neither of them moved. Jackson sighed, then jumped when Dolly bolted up.

“I-I’m going to take a shower. Don’t, um. Don’t come in.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Hop said, though his eyes followed her as she slid his jacket off her shoulders and stepped into the bathroom.

Jackson squinted his eyes at Hop, who raised his hands in defense.

“Why would I go in there?” Hop huffed. “Come on, Jackson, I thought we were mates now?”

Jackson squinted harder until his eyes were only a sliver.

“Are you just going to stare at me until she’s done?” Hop sighed.

Hop wasn’t sure how Jackson could see, what with how hard he was squinting. Was his stare always so unsettling?

“Right well, stare at me if you want, but I’m going to change,” Hop said as he stood and rolled his eyes. He peeled off his shirt and tossed it to the floor as he rummaged around in his bag for another.

“Move, Jackson, I forgot my hairbrush,” Dolly huffed when Jackson tried to shove her back into the bathroom. “Ow, don’t push me!”

She swatted at him, pushed past him, and stepped over to the bed, only to freeze when she looked up.

“Oh,” she said.

Hop glanced up, only to bite back a grin when Dolly’s gaze trailed down his frame and lingered a few extra seconds. She met his eye, her face reddened three shades darker, and she tore her gaze away.

“I-I, um, sorry,” she mumbled. “Forgot my hairbrush…”

“You know Dolls,” Hop started carefully. “This is the second night in a row. If you want to see me without a shirt you can just ask.”

And then her face darkened another three shades.

“Whatever,” she grumbled. “You probably just want to show off.”

“Show off what?” Hop scoffed as he walked towards her, then leaned down for his bag again.

“Your abs and your back muscles and all that,” Dolly said as she raised her eyebrows.

Hop paused in his reach for his bag. He stood straight again and glanced down at her.

“What?”

“You know,” she huffed again as she waved a hand at him. “All your muscles and nice shoulders and whatever. Trying to show off how attractive you are without a shirt on.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“What?” Dolly asked. Then, her eyes widened. “Oh.”

A small smirk inched onto his face as Dolly’s blush deepened.

“I-I mean,” she stuttered. “Not that… Not that _I_ would think that, though, th-that, that, um…”

Hop casually leaned his forearm on the wall beside her head, and Dolly was willing it with everything in her to only look at his face.

“You think I’m attractive?” Hop repeated. It seemed he had the hint of gravel in his voice, and his eyelids lowered.

“I-I mean, _objectively,_ I, uh,” she stuttered. “You’re, you know, fit, and, uh-”

Jackson stepped over, turned her by the shoulders, guided her into the bathroom, and closed the door behind her. Dolly heaved out a sigh, tossed her hairbrush onto the counter and held her head in her hands.

Tall, handsome, charismatic men: 4. Dolly: 0.

She jerked her head up when she heard a muffled shout from outside the door.

“It was a joke, Jackson!” Hop yelped. “I was joking, it was a joke, don’t burn my face off! She’s not even out here anymore!”

Dolly double checked the lock on the door, then triple checked it, before peeling her own clothes off and tossing them to the floor. She was grateful to get out of those things – she hadn’t washed her clothes in ages, and it was like they were a layer of grime on top of her skin. The steam billowed into the room as the hot water spluttered from the showerhead, then rinsed over her in a steady stream. The thick air filled her lungs, and she breathed out a sigh of content as the heat trickled over her. She peeked out the shower curtain every few minutes though, just in case. As Dolly combed the shampoo through her hair, she heaved out a sigh.

This would be fine. Everything would be fine. She and Hop could maybe chat for a few minutes, then flick off the light and go to sleep. He would have a shirt on, and he wouldn’t touch her or look at her or smile at her or bite his lip or do anything weird. And neither would she. She would tell him goodnight, then they would go to sleep and wake up and also be normal in the morning.

Dolly peeked her head out, and the door was still locked.

Right. Hop was out there with Jackson and he wouldn’t come in. It wasn’t like she wanted him to come in, she didn’t want to see him without a shirt anyway. It wasn’t like he would come in, toss all of his clothes onto the floor, step in with her, stare at her with those golden hooded eyes, lean towards her as the steam heated the air between them, rest his forearm against the wall over her head, brush his thumb over her lips, tilt her chin up, and he definitely wouldn’t kiss her. He wouldn’t press his body against hers, all firm and warm and wet and his lips wouldn’t trail to her cheek then to her jaw and his tongue would stay in his mouth and not slide over her skin or her neck or her-

Nope.

Not tonight. Couldn’t think about that tonight, that was for sure.

Dolly grunted in frustration and clapped her hands against her face. She read the label on the shampoo bottle instead. Why would she bother thinking about kissing Hop when she could read about methylchloroisothiazolinone or guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride? Exactly.

As the shampoo, conditioner, and soap gurgled into the drain, Dolly did wonder how he was feeling. Hop had a rough night the night before, what with the Beartic and breaking down in her tent, then even losing the semifinals to her and everything with Oleana and Rose that day. She would have to ask him about all of that before they went to sleep.

Dolly stepped out of the shower, dried off, toweled up her hair, and reached for her pajamas. She paused, sighed, and slapped her forehead. She unfurled her hair, wrapped the towel around her as securely as possible, laid another one over her shoulders, stared into the mirror, and gave a decisive nod.

“You can do this,” she whispered to her reflection. “He is your best friend, and everything will be normal and not weird.”

Her reflection nodded.

“He won’t notice that you’re only wearing towels instead of clothes.”

Her reflection hesitated, then nodded.

“And you won’t think about kissing him.”

Her reflection pursed her lips, then nodded again.

“Because you don’t want to kiss him anyway, you don’t think he’s super attractive, especially without a shirt on, because that would be weird.”

After another sharp nod from her reflection, Dolly sucked in a breath of air and pulled the door open. She meekly poked her head out.

“ _Jackson!”_ she hissed.

“He’s already sleeping, Dolls.”

Her eyes widened.

“Well wake him up!”

“You wake him up! If I wake him up he’ll kill me.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dolly groaned as she rubbed at her face. “Okay, um, close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think, Hop?!”

“Fine, fine, they’re closed.”

“Turn around too.”

Hop sighed.

“Okay, I’m turned around.”

“And put your hands over your eyes.”

“Done.”

“Don’t look.”

“Not sure how I can, at this point.”

Dolly peeked her head out again, and the air conditioning blasted against her like a furious blizzard. She was surprised her hair strands weren’t icicle shards when she stepped back into the room.

“Geez, it’s freezing out here,” she said as she clutched the towel around her shoulders.

“I can turn it-”

_“Don’t turn around!”_

“Oh, right, sorry.”

“And why aren’t you wearing a shirt?!” she huffed.

“I was texting Lee, I was going to get one then you told me to turn around,” he said. She could hear the smirk in his voice. “Are you sure you even want-“

“Yes.”

Dolly tore her eyes away from his bare back and shoulders and those not-attractive dimples near the base of his spine. She scuttled to her bag, rummaged through her things, and pulled out a clean pair of shorts she bought in Hammerlocke. She pushed around for a shirt, only to find that a can of lemonade had busted open and every article of clothing she had was soaking and sticky, except for the shirt Hop lent her the night before. Dolly groaned again.

“Everything alright back there?” Hop asked.

“The universe is against me tonight,” she mumbled. “Okay when I come back out, don’t… don’t comment on what I’m wearing.”

“…What will you be wearing…?”

Dolly motioned to run back to the bathroom, only for her foot to catch on her bag strap. She tripped and a sharp pain shot through her ankle as she fell to the ground. She inhaled through her teeth as her ankle started to throb again.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I think so,” she said. She grimaced when she tried to untangle herself from the strap, only to wince again when she struggled to stand.

“Do you need help?”

“...Yeah, you can turn around,” she said as she gripped at the towel around her. “I’ve got like, 40 towels on.”

Hop quickly turned, stepped over to her, and knelt beside her. He gently held her leg as he unraveled it from her bag strap. 

“I thought you said your ankle didn’t hurt?”

“It didn’t,” she said as she tore her gaze from him. “I just stepped on it weird, I’m fine, really.”

Something deep within her breathed a sigh of relief to see he was only looking into her eyes. Why did he have to be so respectful? Why couldn’t he be selfish and ill-mannered? That would make it easier to not think about kissing him.

“Can you stand?” he asked. 

“…”

Hop sighed.

“Come on,” he said as he curled his arms around her waist. “I’ll help you up, unless you want to spend the rest of the night crawling around on the ground.”

She didn’t.

Dolly wrapped her arms around him and again fought back the blush as her fingers gripped around his bare shoulders. Hop gently helped her stand, and she tried to balance on her one foot. She squeezed her eyes closed when she felt his breath on her neck.

Jackson turned in his sleep, clutched at her towel, and suddenly Dolly was feeling a bit of a draft around her shoulders. 

Oh.

He clutched at her other one, and suddenly Dolly was feeling a bit of a draft everywhere else.

Oh no.

The air conditioning angrily bit at her as Jackson turned over in his sleep with a contented sigh, now comfortably blanketed beneath her towels.

Please.

She tugged at her towel.

This wasn’t happening.

Jackson tugged it back.

Please, dear Arceus, this wasn’t happening.

She tugged at it again, and those sleep Double-Kicks started up again.

Yep.

The only places she was remotely warm was her blazing cheeks and Hop’s arms wrapped around her bare skin.

This was happening.

Neither of them moved, and Hop’s arms were still frozen around her. One hand was between her shoulder blades, and the other was splayed across her lower back. Droplets of water tickled her skin as they trailed from her hair, and the second Hop’s thumb moved to brush it away, she took in a ragged breath and her fingers clutched harder around his shoulders.

Nice and firm and warm and wet. She’d rather be reading a shampoo bottle.

A few more droplets trickled down from her hair, Hop moved his hand from her back, gripped one of the towels Jackson was clinging to, and ripped it from his paws. He slowly wrapped the towel around her back. After a moment, and then a moment after that, Dolly cleared her throat.

“I’m,” Dolly whispered. “Going to need you to close your eyes again.”

Hop nodded. She glanced up to see Hop squeezing his eyes closed and his neck arched to the ceiling, and she took a hesitant step back to tuck the towel around her again. Their skin peeled apart, and the soft sound of the towel brushing against her again seemed to crack like thunder in the silent room.

“…Good?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah.”

She took another step back, only to grunt as her ankle throbbed, and she tripped backwards. Hop lunged forward to catch her, they tumbled onto the bed, and Dolly gasped when his fingers slid under her towel, up her thigh, up her hip, around her waist.

 _“H-Hop,”_ she breathed.

She couldn’t help how his name came out - it had the hint of a gasp, the hint of a moan, and Hop froze. 

She could feel his heart pounding, even through the fabric between them. They lay like that for only a second, and Hop raised his head.

Her pulse was racing when he glanced down, because she had never made a noise like that before, and never before had she seen that look in his eyes. His pupils were dilated, he was hardly breathing, and it was like he hadn’t eaten in days.

She didn’t want to kiss him.

She didn’t like how close he was. She didn’t like how his hand splayed over her skin. She didn’t like how he felt when he pressed against her.

She didn’t want to kiss him. 

Perhaps the more she repeated that, the more likely it was to become true.

She didn’t like how the heat was flaring between them. She didn’t like how he was the only thing in her line of vision. She didn’t like that deep hunger in his eyes.

She didn’t want to kiss him.

She didn’t want him.

She didn’t want to kiss him.

She so, so desperately didn’t want him. 

She didn’t want to kiss him.

Every aching fiber in her body didn’t want him.

“Hop…” she whispered again.

That hungry expression melted, his brows furrowed, then he tore his gaze away. He quickly untangled himself from her and turned away.

“Don’t…” he started. “Don’t say my name like that.”

Dolly’s skin still tingled, her heart still pounded, and she trailed her fingertips over her thigh, just as Hop had. She quickly sat up and more securely tucked her towel around her, along with a pillow and the sheets and the covers and another pillow.

“Jerry?”

Hop turned back around and wrinkled his nose.

“…What?” he asked.

“You said don’t say your name.”

He processed, then stared at her incredulously.

“N-no!” Hop huffed. “I meant don’t say my name like _that,_ like you’re - l-like we’re - I didn’t mean just to call me some random name!”

“Well how was I supposed to know that?!” Dolly retorted.

“And who the hell is Jerry?!”

“I don’t know that’s the first name I thought of! I can call you Bill or something!”

“No, don’t call me B- augh never mind,” Hop huffed. “Can you put some clothes on?!”

“Tch, fine,” she muttered. “…Harold.”

“Stop!” Hop said, though his mouth twitched up at the corners. “Why are you picking the dumbest sounding names?!”

“They’re not dumb names, Harold is a nice name!”

“It makes me sound like an old man!”

“That’s not _my_ fault,”

“Yes it is, you keep using dumb names!”

“Well looks like I’ll never call you Hop then either.”

His jaw dropped.

“How dare you.”

Dolly tried to bite back her grin, without much success.

“What if I called you Gertrude?” Hop retorted. “Or Patty, or…”

He squinted his eyes.

“Don’t say it,” she warned through gritted teeth.

“Or what if I called you… the most old lady name of them all…”

“Don’t. Say. It.”

Hop leaned in, and whispered in her face.

_“Dolores.”_

“That’s it!” Dolly called as she hurled a pillow at him.

It exploded into a thousand feathers, and Hop was not in the aftermath of the Ducklett feather explosion. Instead, he was crawling towards her again. She was fully ready to shove him off the bed, and he was fully ready to take her down with him, until they heard a voice from behind them.

“HEY.”

Their heads whipped to the couch, where Jackson was groggily glaring at them.

_“Shut up.”_

“Sorry, Jackson,” they whispered in unison. 

Hop glanced down at her, and apologetically released her hands. After watching his cheeks tinge darker, Dolly glanced to the side, and so did Hop. He crawled off of her and flopped onto the bed. They both heaved out a sigh.

“Can you…?” Dolly started quietly.

Hop nodded, turned over, smushed his face into the bed, and put a pillow on top of his head. Dolly fumbled out of her mess of covers and sheets and hobbled back into the bathroom. She closed the door, locked it, and slumped onto the floor with a groan.

Yep. That wasn’t weird at all.

Her skin tingled where he touched, and she curled her arms around her shoulders and hugged her knees to her chest.

They had never been that close before.

Her eyebrows furrowed.

He had never touched her like that before.

Dolly held her head in her hands.

He had never looked at her like that before.

Even though it was an accident, even though Hop did nothing wrong, Dolly felt a little vulnerable as she sat on the floor of the hotel bathroom. He probably didn’t see anything, but that didn’t take away the fact that he probably felt every bit of her that was pressed against him. If that rubbish hotel clerk had done his job right in the first place, none of this would have happened and she wouldn’t be so embarrassed.

She sighed again and held her head in her hands. It was like his handprints were burned into her skin. Even though she had pushed images like that away time after time, for it to actually happen was something else entirely. She didn’t know how to process everything she felt, either now or when he was so close to her bare skin. Why was this so confusing, why was this so hard? Why wasn’t she more upset that he held her like that?

She shook the thought from her head again. That wasn’t something she had the capacity to delve into right that second. Dolly lifted herself up off the floor, pulled on her shorts, slipped on his shirt, washed her face, brushed her teeth, took a couple deep breaths, gave her reflection a double thumbs up, and pulled open the door. Hop was still lying face-first in the mattress with a pillow over his head. 

“Are you decent?” he asked. His muffled mumble was hardly coherent.

“Yup.”

“I can chop my hands off if you want.”

“Yes, would you please?” Dolly said. “I wasn’t sure how to ask.”

Hop breathed out a groan into the mattress.

“I didn’t see anything either, if that makes you feel better. I’ll go sleep in the lobby.”

“I’m not mad, Hop,” Dolly said. “I… actually wanted to say thanks.”

“Thanks?”

“You… um… you have a lot of self-control,” she said as she sat beside him. “That was all an accident and I was really vulnerable but you… you didn’t take advantage of me when you very easily could have. I really respect that i-in… um… in a man...”

Hop gently raised his head.

“Well, yeah, I’m not some animal,” he said. Then his eyes widened, and he shot up. “Did Raiha-?!”

“No!” Dolly quickly retorted as she waved her hands in front of her. “No, no, he stopped when I told him to, don’t worry.”

Hop squinted.

“Seriously, you don’t need to chop his hands off.”

He flopped back onto the mattress.

“I might do it anyway. How’s your ankle?”

“It’s fine,” she said as she twirled her foot. “I should probably stay off of it for the night, though.”

Hop grunted in agreement.

“How about you? How is your Beartic battle wound?”

Hop sighed and turned over so he was facing the ceiling. He rubbed at his chest and shrugged.

“Also fine. Whatever cream you used helped.”

“Do you want me to re-wrap i-”

“N-no,” Hop stuttered. “Um, it’s fine, really. When I got to Wyndon a League doctor re-did it for me anyway.”

Her eyebrows pulled together as he glanced away. It seemed the tips of his ears were tinged pink. When he looked back at her, he squinted his eyes.

“Is that my shirt?”

She glanced down and bashfully fiddled with the hem.

“Yeah, I hope you don’t mind,” she said. “A can of lemonade busted open in my bag and the rest of my clothes are sticky.”

“It looks better on you than it does on me,” Hop said with a shrug. “I don’t mind if you don’t mind.”

“Great, because I’d rather wear this than nothing.”

Hop cleared his throat.

Too soon?

He glanced to the side as his cheeks tinged red.

Yep too soon.

“B-but anyway,” Dolly coughed. “How are you doing in general? I feel like we haven’t had a lot of time to talk.”

Hop glanced at her and his furrowed brow softened. 

“Pretty good, in general. Thanks for asking, Dolls.”

She nodded, and he sat across from her on the covers. She asked him about his thoughts, his feelings, and his reflections on everything that happened that day, and the day before, and they eventually ended up discussing almost everything since they started together in Postwick. Dolly hadn’t realized how much struggle Hop had gone through as well. Although his downfalls may have not been as dramatic (or as publicized) as hers, she could understand the struggle of wrangling six fully grown and powerful Pokémon. Even more than that, what with how often he switched his team up in their Gym Challenge. He mentioned he was a little lonely throughout their Galar trekking, and Dolly nodded in understanding. She had her Pokémon team to talk with and laugh with, but that wasn’t something Hop had. And although he had made friends with other Gym Challengers, he sighed and mentioned how much it stung when he started realizing a lot of people were using him to get to Leon.

When Hop yawned, he stood to flick off the main light. They were bathed in the warm glow of the bedside lamp, though their fervent argument over the best type of potato didn’t leave room for appreciating the ambiance. They talked about other antics they got into when they were apart, funny Trainers they met, obstacles they had to overcome. He mentioned he fell off a hill when trying to catch a Duraludon, and he had a knot in his back the size of a Poké Ball. Dolly tried not to giggle at the image of Hop rolling down a hill while simultaneously flinging Poké Balls around. Throughout their conversation, Dolly’s eyebrows furrowed whenever Hop winced. She was sure that Beartic attack didn’t help, either. After a handful of times that he waved her off, she tried to look at him as earnestly as possible.

“I can rub your back, if you want,” she said. “You keep wincing.”

Hop tried to wave her off again, only to wince.

“I said I’m fine,” Hop said, and Dolly sighed.

“I’m asking because I want to,” Dolly said quietly. “You’ve done so much for me, Hop, let me do something for you. What happened to accepting help from your friends?”

His eyes flicked around her face, a small smile formed on his lips, and he breathed out.

“That actually sounds really nice,” he said. “Thanks Dolls.”

She crawled behind him as he turned around, only to pause a couple inches from his skin. The room was dark, he was warm, and Dolly’s throat felt a little dry when her gaze trailed down again.

“Oh, uh,” Hop said as he turned to her. “Just try not to be distracted by my nice back and shoulder muscles I guess.”

“I’d smack you if I knew you weren’t already sore,” Dolly said as she rolled her eyes. She wondered if he could see the faint blush she felt spreading over her face.

Hop chuckled again and flopped onto the mattress. She did indeed try not to be distracted by his nice back and shoulder muscles, though it was a little hard not to stare. The second pressed against his back her eyebrows shot up.

“Geez, Hop, you’re super tense,” Dolly grunted as she rubbed at the knots with her elbow.

“Yup,” he replied. “It’s been a stressful few days.”

Dolly nodded. She managed to work out a couple knots in his shoulders and started pushing at the ones in his neck. Poor Hop, seemed like every bit of him was tense... She massaged his neck, his shoulders, his back, his lower back, then did it all again. It was a little hard to not stare, and a little hard to not be distracted as her fingers traced down his spine, between his ribs, and along the lines of his shoulder blades. No, she had never touched this much of him either. How was his skin so soft? Was her back that soft? Did he use lotion or something? Geez…

After a few more minutes, her fingers were starting to get tired, and she leaned down to his ear. Her hair wafted down and splayed across his shoulder blades.

“You know,” Dolly said quietly. “There is another way to help you relieve some tension.”

It seemed like Hop stopped breathing. He slowly pulled back and furrowed his brow.

“What did you say…?” he asked quietly.

She trailed her fingers down the line of his spine again.

“I said there’s another way to relieve tension,” she said.

“What… did you have in mind?”

“I was going to say we should probably just go to sleep. Can’t be much more relaxed than you are when you’re sleeping.”

Hop heaved out the breath he was holding.

“Oh,” he said. “Okay, yeah, good idea.”

“What did you think I was going to sa-”

“Nothing! Nothing,” Hop stuttered as he grabbed at his shirt again. “Good idea.”

He quickly crawled under the covers, and Dolly did too. He flicked off the light and settled against his pillow. The soft glow of the moon wafted from a crack in the curtains and highlighted his profile. They both breathed out a deep sigh, and Dolly’s eyes tracked the movement of his throat as he swallowed. She lifted her gaze, and traced the curve of his eyelashes, the curve of his lips, the angle of his jaw, as he breathed out again. Her eyebrows pulled together.

Was Hop… always so handsome?

The moon’s glow glinted when he opened his eyes.

“What?” he asked.

“What?” she repeated.

“You’re staring at me.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are, I can feel you looking at me.”

“Oh, sorry,” Dolly mumbled.

“Is it because I’m super handsome?” he said with a cheeky grin.

Dolly nodded, and his cheeky grin was replaced with something of shock. He turned to her, and the moon was now shining behind his head. Wow yeah was he always so handsome? He was practically angelic. How was he doing that? Was he doing this on purpose? Heat rose to her cheeks as she pulled the covers up over her nose.

“Really?” he asked.

She nodded again.

“And I was… um,” Dolly said quietly. “I was wondering since it’s… kinda cold…”

Hop’s eyebrows furrowed.

“And this blanket is kind of thin… and… the air conditioning is really strong…and… um…”

“Dolls…” Hop said. He leaned up on his elbows as a cheeky smirk inched back on his face. “Do you want to cuddle with this super handsome man?”

“W-well,” Dolly stuttered as she glanced to the side. “T-today was just, overwhelming, and, and um, a-and you… you’re good at it… and I, um… I feel safe… wh-when you’re… close to me… so… um…”

Hop raised an eyebrow.

“Never mind,” she grumbled as she turned around. “I sound like an idiot. Just pretend I didn’t say any of that.”

“No! No, c’mere,” Hop laughed. “Come here Dolls, I’ll cuddle with you.” 

He quickly slid over, curled his arms around her and pulled her against his chest. Dolly unintentionally let out a sigh when he brushed the hair off her neck, then he laid against the pillow with her. Hop gently started combing through her hair. As soon as he did, her eyes fluttered closed and she melted against him again. She wasn’t sure about how she felt now that he knew her one weakness, and how he seemed to be keen on using it… quite often.

After a moment, she decided that she didn’t really mind. Dolly turned, curled her arms around him, and nestled her face into the crook of Hop’s neck. Thoughts of him and his safety and his friendship and his kindness softly drifted through her mind, just as gently as his thumb brushed over her cheek.

“I thought you’d never ask, to be honest,” Hop said quietly. “I didn’t think _I_ could ask after everything that happened.”

Her only response was a grunt.

“How’s your ankle?” Hop asked, lightly trailing his fingers over her skin, and again through her hair. 

“‘sfine,” she hummed, nestling into his touch.

“You’re not very articulate tonight, are you?”

“Hmhmm.”

Hop chuckled again, and Dolly nestled closer to him. She hummed out a contented sigh.

“I’m glad the hotel messed up your reservation,” Dolly mumbled.

Hop’s heart was thrumming again, and Dolly could feel it beating against her. Another soft thought brushed through her mind. She kind of wanted to stay like that forever... she kind of wanted to stay with him forever.

Then, she thought about it again, a little more clearly. They would always be friends, but could friends stay like this, wrapped in each other’s arms, forever? Did Butterfree swarm in the stomachs of people who were just friends, whenever they were inches away from each other’s lips? Did friends ache for the touch of a friend, or melt when a friend combed through their hair?

Did friends feel that gnaw within them, just as Dolly did?

When Hop hugged her a little tighter, a little closer, Dolly hummed out a sigh, and that silent question loomed over her again.

Could she be…?

Well… Probably not. They both liked cuddling, perhaps that was all this was.

Her breathing slowed, and the rhythm of Hop’s heartbeat against her was strangely soothing. She tried to hold back another yawn. To think it was only that morning that she and him woke up on Route 10 together. And here she was again, lying with him as he combed through her hair.

Man, it had been a _long_ day.

Yet, she was perfectly fine to end it just like this. Dolly breathed out a sigh of content. Her consciousness started to drift again, and memories of the flickering lights of Wyndon specked behind her eyelids like little stars.

Hop paused, whispered her name, and when she didn’t respond, he brushed Dolly’s bangs off her face. She was lightly snoring, breathing softly, and Hop hugged Dolly a little tighter, trailed his fingers through her hair a little more gently, and delicately pressed his lips to the top of her head. She turned in her sleep, and Hop sighed again. The moon was shining through the curtains when he cupped her face and brushed his thumb over her cheek. Hop’s eyebrows pulled together, and he slowly shook his head as he breathed out.

“I am so in love with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if your name is Jerry, Bill, Harold, Getrude, Patty, or Dolores. Your name is not dumb.


	29. Ghost Pokémon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 29 - Ghost Pokémon**

“Why’d you do it, Miss Dolly?”

Lacey’s eyes were cold, empty, black, just like the space around them. Her wool was matted and gray, and the spot over her heart was oozing with a purple sludge. It gurgled as it dripped, though the bubbles made no noise when they popped. Although Lacey’s hooves were set on the ground, the line of poison continued to trail beneath the floor. It blurred the further down it went.

“Why’d you kill me?”

“I didn’t mean to,” Dolly replied. “It was an accident.”

“Why do I feel like this, Miss Dolly?” Lacey asked.

“I’m sorry, please, I’m sorry,” Dolly begged as she tried to reach for her old Wooloo. Her voice echoed in her ears, but she couldn’t lift her arms, nor move her feet.

“My veins hurt, Miss Dolly.”

It was like Dolly was slowly sinking as each second passed. She was slowly sinking just like the line of poison did as it dripped beneath the floor from Lacey’s heart.

“Psychic-type isn’t effective against Dark-type.”

Pip appeared beside Lacey, and her eyes were blank too. The liquid that normally swirled around her was dripping off, leaking onto the ground until the Solosis was only a floating skull. The green liquid started to pool around Dolly’s ankles as Pip spoke again.

“Do you know why?”

Dolly couldn’t move her arms, so she only shook her head.

“It’s because it’s hard to think in the dark,” Pip said as her voice echoed. “It’s hard to think when you’re exhausted.”

“Pip,” Dolly whispered. “I know, I know.”

Dolly wanted to reach out to Pip, wanted to scoop up the liquid that was pooling beneath her. As the liquid oozed, bits of her body started to flake off. Pip didn’t have a face anymore. There was only a white sphere floating in front of her, with the green liquid dripping off. The white sphere slowly started to flake away.

“I wanted to be just like you.”

Dolly’s head whipped around. Posey was staring up at her. Half of her ear was torn clean off, and two Sun Stones were lodged in her eye sockets. Her old Eevee’s fur was matted too, patched together by a dark red substance.

“But why? Why would I want to be like you? You killed me.”

The word echoed in her head as she tried to speak again. Dolly opened her mouth, but no words came out. She was starting to seep into the ground faster and faster. The purple sludge beneath her was like quicksand and was already up to her calves.

_"Dolly, help!”_

There was Mateo, crumpled on the ground. The crater he was in formed a crack that ran through the floor.

_“Dolly, help!”_

“Mateo,” Dolly said. Her voice cracked, just like the crack in the floor. “Mateo, I’m here, I’m here.”

_“Dolly, help!”_

“P-please Mateo,” Dolly cried. “Stop, please, I’m sorry.”

_“Dolly, help!”_

It was like he took air from her lungs to breathe his last breath. Dolly gasped the second the light faded from his eyes.

“You should have listened, Dolly.”

There was Sap, with her shell dented and cracked. Something was oozing out of her side, and the Vikavolt’s wings weren’t fluttering, but floating beside her, torn from her body. It was the rainwater that was pooling beneath her, and it melded into the liquid that was now to Dolly’s knees. Thunder cracked, and Sap was only a foot away.

“You never listened to me, Dolly. I kept begging you to stop, begging you to stop killing me, and you didn’t listen.”

“I know,” Dolly whispered. Her fingers trembled as she tried to lift her arms. “I’m sorry, Sap, I’m sorry.”

“You barely knew my name.”

There was her Noibat. The tears in her wings were laced with scabs and dried blood. Thunder cracked again, and the Noibat was only a foot away.

“I… I know your name,” Dolly said desperately. “I know it, I know your name.”

Dolly wracked her brain, but nothing came. It was on the tip of her tongue, this Pokémon’s name, she knew it. She couldn’t close her eyes to focus on what this Noibat’s name was.

“You never loved me,” the Noibat said. “You never learned my name, and then you killed me.” 

Thunder cracked again, and Dolly sank to her waist.

“It’s your fault, Dolly.”

There was Jackson. His face was scorched, and his eye was bruised as he stared down at her.

“Jackson?” Dolly whispered. “B-but you, you haven’t-”

“It’s your fault. Everyone else left,” Jackson said.

“What...?”

“They were scared of what you would do to them after what you did to me.”

Her eyes widened as she took in the burns on his face.

“I did that…?” she whispered. Jackson nodded.

“They all ran away before you could kill them too.”

“Y-you… you’re…”

“I’m dead, Dolly,” Jackson said. “I’m dead because of you.”

“S-stop, please, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Dolly gasped as the tears tumbled down her face. “Please, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“You have no curse,” Jackson said as he set his foot on her head. “You killed us because you wanted to. You’re a heartless murderer.”

He slowly pushed her lower into the sludge. Her sobs and apologies echoed helplessly, fell brokenly and uselessly to the ground like a dusty scratched record.

“J-Jackson, please, stop, I’m sorry,” Dolly whispered. The sludge was up to her throat and was starting to choke her slowly. “I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late for sorry, Dolly. Ask her.”

The Pokémon before her evaporated. There was one left, standing in the shadows, standing with her hooves set on either side of the crack in the ground. Her fur was dark and wet from the rain. She was facing away, and Dolly struggled to pull herself up from the ground. She was sinking beneath the floor, and the poison bubbled into her mouth.

Dolly couldn’t breathe.

Her hooves made no sound as she turned, the flower on her head withered, the crack rumbled into a fissure, and Dolly screamed as she fell.

She woke with a start, gasping for air.

“Dolls,” Hop grumbled. “You okay?”

She struggled to lift herself up as she tried to breathe.

“Hey, hey, you’re alright,” Hop said softly as he lifted his head. “You’re okay Dolls, it was just a dream.”

Her heart was pounding as she sat up and whipped her head around.

“Wh-who are you? Where’s Jackson? Where is he?” she asked breathlessly.

“It’s me, Hop,” he said as his eyebrows pulled together. “Jackson is right over there, he’s still sleeping on the couch.”

Hop sat up too and gestured toward the Cinderace who was snoring on the couch of her hotel room. Her chest was heaving with each breath, and Dolly started to shake. Hop gently brushed his fingers over her shoulder. She crawled to him, he quickly curled his arms around her, and she buried her face in his shirt as the tears started to fall. 

“Breathe, Dolls,” Hop whispered as he lightly rubbed her back. “In and out, there you go. You’re safe, it was just a dream.”

Dolly sobbed quietly as the memory of the dead eyes of her Pokémon bored into her again. They flashed behind her eyelids, each and every one of them. Images of the rest of her Pokémon tore into her, too, images of Rosa, of Hudson, even of her old Yamper and Meowstic, images flashed of what they would have looked like if they stood beside the rest. 

Rouge wanted to run away the entire time, she ran away, they all ran away. They were all dead.

Dolly lifted her head to look at Jackson. There were no scorch marks on his face, and his eye wasn’t bruised. She buried her face in Hop’s shirt again as the tears tumbled out. He swayed them gently and combed through her hair as she clutched at him.

“It’s all my fault,” she whimpered. “I can’t do it, I can’t do it again, I can’t.”

“Shh, you’re alright,” Hop whispered again. 

She was crying out incoherent words as her body racked with sobs. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw one of their faces again. She killed them all. They were all dead. She killed them all. Dolly pushed Hop away.

“I have to go,” she mumbled as she tried to untangle herself from the covers. “I have to drop out, I have to tell Rose I’m dropping out, I have to find him and Oleana, I have to drop out, I can’t do it again, I have to drop out.”

Hop leaned forward again, and gently wove his arms around her waist.

“They’re sleeping,” he said softly. “You can’t talk with them right now.”

“They’re… they’re…” she whispered.

They were sleeping, probably because they were tired of dealing with her. They were so exhausted from how much work she put them through. Were they dead too? Did she kill them too?

“C’mere,” Hop whispered as he gently tugged on her waist.

Dolly let him curl his arms around her, though she didn’t want to close her eyes, for fear of the images that were behind her eyelids. She knew it. She knew she would do it. She knew she would do it again. They were all dead, she killed them all. A heartless murderer.

“I can’t do it again,” she mumbled as she shook her head. “I can’t do it again, I can’t, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay Dolls, I know.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

After a few minutes, her mumbling finally slowed, until she was sporadically letting out small, choked sobs.

“It was just a dream,” Hop whispered again. He trailed his hand up her back and rubbed in slow circles. “You’re awake, and you’re in your Wyndon hotel room, with me, Hop, and with Jackson, who is sleeping on the couch.”

She nodded and coughed out another sob.

“Hop,” she whispered through gritted teeth. “They were all staring at me but I couldn’t touch them. They told me it was my fault, I killed them all, and that everyone else ran away because they were scared of me. A-and my Noibat… Fay, it’s Fay, her name is Fay.”

Hop nodded. He pulled her hair off her neck, lifted the sheet, and blotted the lines of sweat and tears that were trailing down her face.

“I couldn’t think of her name,” Dolly whimpered. “I couldn’t remember it, and she said I never loved her. But I did, I do, I do.”

“I know, Dolls,” Hop whispered. 

Dolly tried to speak, but no sound came out. She bolted away again and tore the covers off of her. Her heart was pounding, and the sweat was starting to pool. Hop stood too, and gently curled his pinky around hers.

“I… I have to drop out,” Dolly said again as she stared at the door. “I have to drop out. I should have dropped out. Jackson’s dead, they’re all dead. They all ran away from me and they’re all dead.”

She motioned towards the door, only for Hop to gently steer her into the bathroom. He flicked on the soft light of the shower and stopped her in front of the counter.

“Look, there you are,” Hop said as he pointed at the mirror. He gently held her hand, raised it to his face, and pressed it against his cheek. “And here I am. All of that was all just a dream, and none of it was real.”

Dolly stared at her reflection, at Hop’s reflection, then she turned to Hop with a furrowed brow. He smiled at her, brought her hand to his lips, and kissed her palm.

“You felt that, right?”

Dolly nodded.

“This is what is real, you’re awake now, and you’re safe here with me, okay?”

Dolly’s breathing was slowing, and she wiped the tears off her face. Hop still had one arm curled around her waist as he turned on the faucet and filled up a cup for her. 

“Will you drink this for me?”

Dolly nodded. She took the cup with shaky hands, brought it to her lips, and drank hungrily. She handed it back to Hop, who then refilled it, and handed it back. She quickly drank again, Hop handed her a towel, and she wiped the sweat off her face as she tried to catch her breath.

“How are you feeling?”

“...Better.”

“Let’s go open the window for some fresh air. Will you come with me?”

Dolly nodded. Hop filled up another cup, flicked off the light, and followed her to the back of the room. Light trickled into the hotel room when Hop pulled open the curtain, and a cool breeze wafted in when he lifted the window. Sounds of the night rain pattered on the stones of the plaza, and the city lights twinkled in the reflective sheen on the ground. The breeze was cool on her face as Dolly sipped at her water again. She set the empty cup on the windowsill.

Thunder cracked, and Dolly gasped.

There was her Vikavolt, only a foot away. 

There was her Noibat, only a foot away.

She shook her head, and the images were replaced with the glowing Wyndon lights out the window. When she started to tremble again, just as the rumbling thunder did in the distance, Hop wove his arms around her. She turned from the window and buried her face in his chest. After a few more sniffles, she nodded.

“Thank you,” she muttered softly against his shirt. Hop nodded too.

She listened to the soft rain as it tapped against the windowsill. Night noises swam around them from the open window, sounds like car horns, muffled laughter, and the musicians on the street corners. Although the life of night vivaciously bustled outside, Dolly could only muster enough strength to curl her fingers around Hop’s shirt.

“Hop…” 

“Hm?”

“I… don’t think I should battle anymore.”

At this, her brow furrowed again, and the tears pricked in her eyes, then trickled down her face.

“I know you’re scared, but let’s think about how well you’ve been doing,” Hop said. He gently brushed her hair off her neck. “Your Pokémon are strong, stronger than all the other Gym Challengers, and all of the Gym Leaders. You’ve been training a lot, right?”

Dolly sniffled and nodded her head.

“And if things start looking scary, you’ve made a plan, right?”

She nodded again.

“Your Pokémon all love you, don’t they? Remember how you told me that when we were at dinner with Lee? They all love you just as much as you love them?”

Dolly sniffled again. She lifted her head and Hop cupped her cheek.

“You love yourself, and I love you too, right? And so does Lee, Sonia, your mum, and geez, even my mum loves you,” Hop added with a chuckle.

Hop paused, then heaved out a sigh.

“My mum loves you a _lot_.”

“...Yeah…” Dolly said quietly, and the corner of her mouth twitched up.

“See?” Hop smiled. “It was just a dream. Jackson’s right there, and the rest of your Pokémon are safe in their Poké Balls. Nothing’s going to happen again. You’ve been taking real good care of yourself lately, and I am so proud of you.”

He gently pressed his lips to the top of her head, and Dolly’s trembling started to lighten. She rested her head on his chest and let her eyes close. He combed his fingers through her hair, gently trailed them across her forehead, and he lightly brushed his finger down the bridge of her nose.

“I… I don’t want to sleep again, Hop,” Dolly said as she pulled his hand from her head. She hiccupped again and pushed the tears off her cheek.

“Nope, that’s not an option,” Hop replied. “You need your sleep, especially after such a stressful day, and before the finals matches tomorrow.”

“But… what if I have that dream again?” she said quietly. “I-I can’t… I can’t face them all again.”

“What if we just sit and talk for a little bit?”

“Um… okay.” 

When he started towards the bed, she grabbed his hand and quickly shook her head.

“We don’t have to go to sleep yet,” Hop said. “Let’s talk in bed for a little bit.”

Dolly’s gaze flicked from Hop’s eyes to the mess of covers on the bed. He wove his fingers around hers, and she followed him to the edge of the mattress. He sat against the headboard, held his arms out for her, and she delicately curled back onto him. He easily curled his arms around her, and Dolly settled herself against him. He combed the hair off her neck, and she carefully ran her fingers over the hem of his shirt. She quickly lifted her head.

“Hop?”

“Yeah?”

“You… you won’t leave me, will you? You won’t run away from me?”

Hop’s eyes softened.

“Never.”

“You’re not lying?”

“Dolls,” Hop sighed. “I could never leave you. Like, ever. Trust me. I’d actually… I’d stay with you the rest of my life, if you wanted me to.”

That seemed to satiate her, Dolly nodded, and tucked her head under his chin again. 

He was combing through her hair, and Dolly breathed out a hum. Her eyelids fluttered closed, though she could feel Hop hesitantly adjust beneath her. He was trying to quietly squirm lower and lower, and she sat up.

“I… I don’t want to lay down. I don’t want to sleep again.”

Hop sat up too and his eyebrows pulled together. 

She gazed out the window at the soft rain that was pattering against the pane. This night was just like the one in Motostoke, how the thunder rumbled in the distance, how guilt panged in her throat, how Hop sat beside her. Dolly bit her lip hard enough to draw blood when she tried to hold back another sob.

“What if,” she started. “What if it happens again? What if everyone finds out? What if everyone thinks I’m a monster, and what if they all grab at my hair and throw things at me and spit on me?”

The tears tumbled down.

“All those interviews and rubbish shows about me,” she whispered again through gritted teeth. “I can’t… I can’t go through that again, Hop. If I’m Champion everyone will hate me, they’ll all hate me and talk about me and, a-and Leon will hate me and you’ll hate me and, a-and-”

She coughed out another sob.

“They’re all right, all of them,” she said as she hid her face in her hands. “I’m a selfish monster, I’m a murderer, all my Pokémon hate me, I’m-”

“Dolls, look at me.”

He gently cupped her face and brushed his thumbs over her cheeks. 

“You’re not, and they don’t hate you. Lee and I could never hate you either. You know that.”

She tore her gaze from his and nodded lightly again.

“You’re safe here with me. I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?”

“...promise?”

“Promise,” Hop said and squeezed her shoulders. “If anyone tries to come in, I’ll punch ‘em.”

A small smile broke over her face. Hop grinned and brushed the tears off her cheek. 

“There’s a smile,” he said softly. “How about I tell you a story, then?”

She nodded, and he sat against the headboard and held his arms out. 

“Alright, story time. Take your places, people.”

Dolly’s smile grew, and she curled against him again. Hop gently wove his arms around her and held her head to his chest as he leaned back. Dolly let out a deep sigh.

“Any requests from the audience?”

Dolly sniffled again and nestled into his warmth.

“Can it have a Tyranitar in it?”

“Sure. What should the Tyranitar’s name be?”

“...Jerry.”

Her giggle was congested and Hop playfully shook his head as he offered her a tissue from the nightstand.

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Hop said. “Fine. Jerry. Anything else?”

“Nope.”

“Should Jerry the Tyranitar have a friend?”

“Um… yes. A Foongus.”

“What is the Foongus’ name?” Hop asked.

“Foongus.”

Hop sighed, and Dolly grinned as she nestled closer.

“Alright,” he said. “So we’ve got Jerry the Tyranitar and Foongus the Foongus.”

“Yep.”

Dolly giggled again and Hop rolled his eyes.

“Great, okay,” Hop started. “Once upon a time, there was a Tyranitar named Jerry and a Foongus named Foongus.”

Dolly snorted.

“Excuse me, can you quiet down? I’m trying to tell a story.”

“Sorry,” Dolly said as she bit back another laugh.

Hop pointedly cleared his throat.

“One day, Jerry the Tyranitar went to visit Foongus the Foongus because Foongus the Foongus happened to be a lawyer. Jerry the Tyranitar said, ‘Foongus the Foongus, I need a name change because Jerry is a stupid name.’”

“No!” Dolly called as she lifted her head. “You can’t change his name!”

“The characters write themselves Dolls, I have nothing to do with it.”

“Yeah right,” she laughed as she nestled against him again. “This story sucks.”

Hop’s jaw dropped, and it hit the top of her head.

“How dare you,” Hop scoffed. “Fine, what kind of story should I tell, then?”

Dolly rubbed the hem of his shirt between her fingers as she thought over his question. She sniffled again.

“Tell me something about you,” she said quietly. “Something that I don’t know.”

“About me?” Hop repeated. She nodded. “Okay, well, um…”

Hop hummed as he glanced to the ceiling.

“You’re my best mate,” he said.

“I already knew that,” Dolly replied as she rolled her eyes.

“Right, yes. Something else then…”

Dolly yawned and fiddled with the fabric of his shirt.

“I love your laugh.”

A faint blush crept up onto her cheeks, and she hid her face in his shirt again.

“Not about me,” she mumbled.

“Oh, right. My apologies, you weren’t very specific.”

Dolly rolled her eyes again.

“I’ve always kind of wanted a Cubone,” Hop said. “I think they’re cute.”

“Hm, I didn’t know that,” Dolly hummed as her eyes closed. “What else?”

“I think you’re cuter than a Cubone.”

“Hop,” Dolly mumbled again as her blush deepened. His laugh rumbled against her ear.

“Right right, sorry. So, I didn’t tell you this, but…” Hop started. He swiveled his head around suspiciously, and Dolly glanced up at him. “You know that group of mums that wanted a picture with me after the semifinals?”

“Yeah?”

“One of them pinched my butt.”

Dolly gasped, and her hand flew to her mouth.

“Really hard, too.”

“Hop!” Dolly exclaimed. “That’s terrible! What did she look like? If I see her I swear I’ll-”

“I kinda liked it.”

Dolly froze, then when Hop grinned, she pursed her lips to hold back a smile as she shoved his arm.

“Ugh, ew, Hop! You twit, I was actually worried about you for a second! I was just thinking about how I would punch some lady for you!”

“Aw, you’d punch a middle-aged woman for me?”

Dolly rolled her eyes.

“You were going to protect my dignity,” Hop whimpered, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. 

“Why are you like this,” Dolly sighed as Hop cackled again. 

They lay there for a while, and their breathing started to slow. The night breeze was still quiet in the room, and it gently whispered through their hair. Dolly’s eyes started to feel heavy, and she yawned again.

“What else?” she asked.

Hop hummed, and gently rubbed her back.

“I’ve learned a lot from the Gym Challenge.”

Her eyebrows pulled together, though her breathing was starting to slow.

“Like what?”

“Like how much work it takes to be a strong Trainer, how important it is to take care of myself when I’m traveling, and I’ve been reminded of how important my friends are to me,” he said with a soft smile. He combed through her hair, and she hummed.

Hop gently turned, and carefully lowered her onto their pillows. He trailed his fingers over her forehead, down the bridge of her nose, then through her hair again. She faded in and out as her consciousness slipped. Hop sat up to adjust the covers over them, and Dolly’s eyes stayed closed a little longer each time she blinked.

“Are you feeling better?” Hop asked softly. She nodded.

“It was just a dream,” she said through a yawn. “It was just a dream and I’m strong and I’ve made a plan and I’ll win tomorrow.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Hop grinned as he held her closer.

Dolly yawned again, though she couldn’t force her eyes open.

"Hop?” she said softly.

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, love.”

Her eyebrows pulled together, though the black of sleep was starting to swirl behind her eyelids.

“What’d you say?”

“I said you’re welcome.”

“You’re welcome for what?” she asked as she groggily curled her arm around him.

“Nothing, Dolls,” Hop chuckled. “Goodnight.”

“G’night,” Dolly yawned.

He gently kissed her forehead and breathed out another sigh as the night sounds of Wyndon softly drifted over them, just as the fog of sleep did.

~~

“Dolly, it’s time to get up.”

The warm fog of morning was blanketed over Dolly, and she fully intended to snuggle with it as long as she could.

“Five more minutes…” she hummed. She pulled the warmth closer to her, and nuzzled her face into the thick, plush blanket. Her consciousness wavered in and out as she heaved out a contented sigh.

“Ugh, you’re so annoying in the morning.”

The warm fog of morning was getting a little hot, though. Sweat started to prick on her brow as Dolly shifted. Hm... yeah it was getting pretty hot. Was this a heated blanket? What setting was it even on? She couldn’t remember plugging anything in last night...

At that thought, her heated blanket’s temperature amped up, and when Dolly opened her eyes, the curtains rustled, and the bright morning light stabbed straight into her eye sockets. With a groan she turned away from the light, though her blanket wasn’t coming with her. Instead, two tall, white ears perked up.

“Jackson?” she grumbled. “Give me my blanket, just five more minutes.”

“You’re _talking_ to your blanket.”

Dolly curled her arms around her Cinderace and tried to lay his warm fur over her. She held him tighter as he squirmed.

 _“Sto-op,_ ” he whined. “Let _go-o._ ”

“Why can’t you sleep next to my head like you used to? You were so cute when you were a little Scorbunny.”

“Because you’re annoying and grabby!” he huffed as he pulled her arms off of him again. “I can hardly breathe half the time.”

“Come now, Dolly, it’s time to get up,” Rosa clapped from the window. “I’ve got your things ready for you.”

Dolly released Jackson from her grip and he bolted back, panting melodramatically. She curled into a ball and closed her eyes again. Just five more minutes. Only when Jackson tugged her pillow out from under her did she finally, and reluctantly, sit up. She motioned to pat Hop on the head to wake him up, only to pat an empty pillow. Her eyebrows pulled together.

“Hop said he’d be right back,” Ophelia explained from the armchair beside the desk. “He wanted to tell you himself, but you were sleeping pretty soundly.”

“Sleeping soundly?” Jackson scoffed. “That makes her sound like a little Litten or a cute baby, she was dead to the world! Hop woke _me_ up, and then he had to toss a few of us out of our Poké Balls because he was worried you’d freak out when he wasn’t here!”

“Oh, he was so very gentle with you,” Rosa swooned. She hopped up onto the bed with a hairbrush and started to comb through Dolly’s hair. “He held you so tenderly, and oh, the way he _gazed_ at you, my Dolly, it nearly made me cry.”

“He’s literally just taking a shower,” Jackson grumbled. “Kept saying things like ‘make sure she gets up on time if I’m not out,’ ‘there’s some ice for her ankle in the fridge,’ and ‘I’ve plugged her phone in under the desk,’ like we didn’t know what we were doing. Had to close the door in his face before he would shut up.”

“I have to agree with Jackson,” Ophelia smiled. “I think he wanted to wake up with you.”

Dolly bit back a smile as warmth spread over her cheeks.

“I should probably thank him,” she said quietly. “He’s been so sweet lately.”

“Thank _him_?! What about thanking _me_?!” Jackson scoffed. “I’m the one that had to endure you suffocating me!”

Dolly grinned and wrapped her arms around Jackson. She flopped back onto the bed with a giggle as he whined again. 

“You’re right, thank you, Jackson. How’s my morning breath?”

“You’re a garbage pile!”

He squirmed out from her grip with another huff, stuck his tongue out at her, and returned to his Poké Ball.

“He doesn’t really mind it,” Ophelia said with a soft laugh. “He snuggled with you the second you reached out to him. And honestly, I think he really likes Hop, despite what he says.”

“It’s true,” Rosa hummed. “Why, he was telling us just last night in the park how much affection he has for the two of you.”

The muffled sound of a shower curtain sliding on its rings came from behind the bathroom door.

“I think that’s our cue, Rosa,” Ophelia said. “We’ll give you two some time.”

“Oh, we don’t, we-we’re not-” Dolly stuttered, only to stutter to open air as her Pokémon flashed into their Poké Balls.

She slumped against the headboard and huffed the hair out of her face. The room was quiet, now without her three Pokémon talking with her, or the familiar white noise of Jackson’s snoring. The silence was broken by a creak, and Dolly glanced up.

Hop peeked his head out the door, and a smile quickly spread over his face when he met her gaze. A light blush crept onto her cheeks because of that goofy smile, and she hugged the covers closer to her.

“Morning,” she said quietly.

“Good morning,” he said, still with that smile on his face. 

Why’d he have to look at her like that? Why’d he have to smile at her like that? So sweet and sunshiny and soft, it made her stomach tie around itself in little knots. It was too early for this.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked. “Any more bad dreams?”

She shook her head.

“Good,” he said softly as he rested his cheek against the door jam. He hadn’t broken his gaze yet, and Dolly tucked the covers up around her again.

“Why’re you just standing there?” she asked.

“I can’t come out yet.”

“How come?”

“I’m not wearing any clothes.”

“Hop!” Dolly yelped. “Why not?!”

“Forgot ‘em.”

She slapped her forehead, though she couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped.

“Didn’t realize you used all the towels last night either. So, uh,” Hop started, though that goofy grin was still easily plastered over his face. “If you wouldn’t mind tossing me that one on the ground there, that’d be swell.”

Dolly flopped backwards with a groan and rolled off the bed. She put her hand over her eyes, just enough to fuzzily see through the slit between her fingers so she didn’t run into anything. She grabbed the towel, motioned to toss it, only to whip it at him when he waggled his eyebrows. He flinched back with a squeal.

“Careful, I’m tender!” Hop yelped. 

“You’re such a twit,” Dolly said, though her scolding wasn’t as effective when it was laced with a laugh.

Hop snickered, snagged the towel, and scuttled back into the bathroom. Dolly rolled her eyes, only to pause when she noticed the crack in the door. That decision-making part of her brain certainly short-circuited, because it took Dolly a solid five seconds before jolting into focus. What was she doing?! Peeping like that, what was she, some pervert? Yeesh, Dolly, get it together… She was then grateful none of her Pokémon were out to witness that.

Creaking echoed into the room when Dolly flopped onto the bed again and shoved a pillow on top of her head with a groan. She could see why Hop did this before. She heard him shuffle back out, chuckle, dig around in his bag, shuffle back to the bathroom, then quickly step back out and slip under the covers with her.

She peeked her eyes open to see that Hop had also shuffled under her pillow with her and was now an inch away from her nose. 

“Hi.”

“Hop,” Dolly sighed, though, again, she couldn’t fight back her own smile when he still had that stupid grin on his face. “It’s too early for this.”

Hop chuckled and lifted the pillow from their heads. He was still much too close, especially with how he was smiling like that.

“Perfect time for snuggling though, wouldn’t you say?” he said as he easily wrapped his arms around her. He hummed a deep sigh.

“What is with you this morning?” she asked. She didn’t mind much, though - he smelled nice from his shower.

“I’m just… happy,” he said. “It’s been nice to spend so much time with you, and I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

“What did I do to deserve you?” she asked quietly.

As she thought over that question in her mind, Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together as another question brushed through.

Could she be…?

It was… hard to tell. You’d always be affectionate towards someone who you just snuggled with all night the past two nights, right? 

Dolly didn’t delve into that much deeper, as suddenly her phone started vibrating on the desk. She had to pull Hop’s arms off of her, since it didn’t seem like he had any intention of letting go, even with her phone buzzing madly like that. She crawled to the edge of the bed and plucked her phone from the desk.

“Hi Sonia,” Dolly said as she crossed her legs under her. “What’s up?”

 _“Hey Dolly!”_ came Sonia’s tinny voice over the phone. _“Excited for the finals today?”_

“Yeah, absolutely,” Dolly said with a grin.

_“Great! I won’t be able to make it in person, but I wanted to say good luck! I know you’ll do great.”_

“Thanks Sonia, I appreciate it,” Dolly said with a nod. A pregnant pause lulled over the phone. Was that it? Was she supposed to say something else?

_“And also… how was your night last night…?”_

Dolly pursed her lips.

“Uh, fine?” she said. What did that matter? Was she supposed to ask Sonia in return? She didn’t really care what Sonia did last night, but she also didn’t want to be rude. “...How was yours…?”

 _“So, just between us girls,”_ Sonia said. Oh good, so it didn’t matter that Dolly didn’t care about Sonia’s evening. _“I heard you were stressed. Did someone help you... relieve some tension? If you know what I mean...?”_

Did Sonia know about that nightmare? But, how would she have known? Did Hop tell her? He wouldn’t have done that…

“Yeah,” Dolly said as she picked around her nail. “I guess Hop did.”

There was another pause, and Sonia seemed a little breathless when she replied.

_“...he actually did it...?”_

“Yeah, he knew just what I needed,” Dolly said with a small smile. “He was really good at it, too. He was really, um, really gentle...”

She heard coughing, something smash to the floor, then a few choice words.

“Sonia? Are you okay?”

 _“Holy shit I need to text Leon,”_ Sonia muttered. _“We_ will _be talking about this more later, okay?”_

“Uh, okay?”

_“Bye Dolly!”_

“Bye…?”

The phone clicked.

That was odd.

“What’d she want?” Hop asked.

“First she told me good luck in the finals,” Dolly explained as she laid beside him again. “Then she asked if you helped me relieve tension? Not sure what that was all about, though. I told her you did, since you really did help me feel better last night.”

And for the first time that morning, Hop’s smile fell. 

“You didn’t tell her about that dream, did you?” Dolly asked.

Hop looked a bit like a Hoothoot with how big his eyes were as he slowly shook his head. What expression was on his face now? Terror?

“Wonder what she meant, then,” Dolly said with a shrug.

“I need to make a call,” Hop said breathlessly.

Hop stepped out of the room, though she vaguely heard him frantically whispering something outside the door. She heard bits of ‘Lee’ and ‘we didn’t’ and ‘tell Sonia to bugger off,’ but Dolly couldn’t hear the rest when she stepped into the bathroom to change. Wonder what that was about. She packed up for the day, though Hop wasn’t meeting her eye, and it seemed his cheeks were a little pinker than was usual. She shrugged it off in favor of thinking about the finals soon to come.

The matches would be tournament-style, so Dolly had been formulating a plan of attack for each potential opponent. Dolly mulled over her strategies as she and Hop stepped into the lift. Hop leaned against the corner, and Dolly picked around her fingers as she stared at the floor.

Although that dream occasionally flashed across her eyelids, Dolly reminded herself that Rosa, Ophelia, and Jackson all looked normal that morning, and they were all acting normal. Well, as normal as was for them, anyway. And what Hop said was right - she had calculated and prepared for any potential issues if any battle went a bit too far.

The lift stopped every few floors as people got in and out, and a few people offered Dolly good luck if they recognized her. They were still a few floors from the lobby when a man walked in. Even though he stopped walking when he saw them, his pungent aroma continued wafting towards them. He took another step forward and stood close enough for her nerves to tingle at his proximity. Did he… want her to move over? It was just the three of them in the lift, though. He brushed her arm with his.

“Oh, sorry,” Dolly said with a small smile. She shuffled closer to the wall.

“Oi, aren’t you Challenger Dolly?” the man said.

She nodded.

“You’re even prettier in person,” the man said through a yellowed grin.

Dolly nodded again and shifted her gaze to the floor. She could feel Hop tense from beside her.

“An’ what a pretty smile,” the man said. “I’m sure lots of boys like your smile.”

She bit her lip and watched her shoes.

“C’mon, smile,” the man chuckled. “Won’t you smile for me, doll?”

“I, um...” Dolly stuttered. 

“How ‘bout a hug, too,” he said as he took a step closer and held his arms up. “You’re my favorite little Challenger, after all.”

“Oh, I’m um, I’m not comfortable with that, actually,” Dolly said quietly as she stepped closer to Hop.

“Come on, just a little hug?” the man pressed. “You wouldn’t want to disappoint your fans, would you?”

“Do you have ears, mate?” Hop said suddenly. “She said no.”

“This doesn’t concern yo-” 

“Back off,” Hop barked as he clenched his fists. “You’re obviously making her uncomfortable. There’s plenty of room in this lift, you don’t need to stand so close.”

“Alright alright, yeesh,” the man muttered. “Probably sleeping her way to the top anyway, the little slu-”

Hop motioned to grip his hands around the man’s collar, only to pause when Dolly held her hand out.

“I’m sure you’re aware,” Dolly said calmly. “That you are speaking to the strongest Trainer in Galar. Someone who has trained an elite team of Pokémon, whose strength is well beyond what I’m sure you have ever seen. So, the second that door opens, you are going to get off this lift and take your yellow teeth, your receding hairline, and your control issues somewhere else, before I let them listen to the end of that sentence.”

Without another word, the lift door opened, and the man shuffled out. It only took a second before Hop turned to Dolly and pumped his fists.

“That was brilliant!” Hop enthused as a huge grin spread over his face.

Dolly smiled too and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. 

“Really?” Dolly asked. “Was that too much?”

“No way!” Hop said as he gave her a high five. “See I just wanted to punch him, but you didn’t have to! You just stood there all calm and in charge and he didn’t even know what hit him! Real ace, Dolls, you’ve grown so much.”

Dolly breathed out a laugh.

“Thanks Hop,” she said bashfully as she scuffed at the ground again.

“Absolutely brilliant,” Hop said again as he leaned against the wall with a decisive nod. “That was really sexy, I love seeing that confidence in you still, and you really are feeling better. I’m so proud of you.”

A smile broke over her face and she nodded. She was the strongest Trainer, and she had every intention of annihilating Leon without losing a single Pokémon. She didn’t need to listen to some creep. Yeah, she would be fine in the Champion Cup. She was confident, and she was sexy, just like Hop said.

...Wait. 

“Did...” Dolly started. Hop turned to her with an eyebrow raised. “Did you just call me… sexy?”

For the second time that morning, Hop’s eyes were quite Hoothoot-like.

“I... said that out loud?” he coughed.

She nodded as Hop pulled at his collar and cleared his throat.

“W-well I just, uh, I just meant like, uh, look, here’s our stop!” he squeaked as he quickly stepped around her and into the lobby. 

A cheeky grin inched onto her face as she followed him out. She motioned to press the issue, only until a League staff member approached them.

“The finals will be starting shortly, Challenger Dolly,” the staff member said. “I’m here to escort you to the stadium.”

Dolly beamed up at Hop again. 

“This is it!”

They followed the League staff through the city, and Dolly offered waves to the crowds that were forming on the streets. She could hardly contain her smile the closer they got to Wyndon Stadium. Its large pink walls rose high into the air, and its magnanimity highlighted the grand city beyond it. The League staff dropped her off at the front doors, and Dolly hesitantly turned back to Hop. Perhaps it was just the adrenaline pumping, or perhaps she just wanted to see that look on his face again, but Dolly figured that she had batted her eyelashes only once before, and it seemed another good time to try.

“Wish me luck?” Dolly asked cautiously.

Hop raised his eyebrows as a smirk formed on his face.

“Awfully confident today, are we?” he said as he breathed out a laugh. “I was really hoping you would forget about that.”

Dolly bit back a grin, and Hop rolled his eyes. He leaned in, and gently pressed his lips to her forehead.

“Good luck, love,” Hop whispered as he looked into her eyes. “I’m rooting for you.”

Dolly’s smile grew, and she took a step back.

“I’ll see you again when I’m the Champion!” she replied. She turned, opened the doors to Wyndon Stadium, and stopped in her tracks.

What did he call her?

Dolly whipped back around, pushed through the crowd, rushed out the double doors, but the spot where Hop was standing was already filled with new people.

She furrowed her brow. Perhaps she misheard… Dolly turned back into the stadium and shook the thought out of her head. It was not the time to be distracted. She was so close to the championship, so close to proving her strength, and so close to breaking the Curse. She could taste the anticipation in the air. It buzzed like electricity and made the hair on her neck stand on end. 

It was almost time.


	30. The Slumbering Weald Shrine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 30 - The Slumbering Weald Shrine**

Dolly’s heart skipped as her eyes tore over the bracket in the locker room. Nessa first. She and Rosa could handle her with ease.

She turned and took in the appearance of every Gym Leader there with her. Nessa said that the Gym Challenge battles were really just test matches, and this was _real_ battle. Dolly couldn’t help but grin at the thought of how she blew past Nessa so long ago, when she was desperate to get to dinner with Rose. She barely even thought about it when she destroyed Nessa, and Dolly had every intention to destroy her again.

After exchanging friendly words with most of the Leaders (and some good-natured trash talk with Raihan), Dolly stepped over to Kabu. He looked up as she approached, and a small smile formed on his face.

“I wanted to say thank you again, Mr. Kabu,” Dolly said. “You’re part of the reason I’m here today, part of the reason I was able to press on.”

“And you have inspired me to do the same,” Kabu said as he set a hand on her shoulder. “You have grown, and as long as you continue to push yourself, your brilliance will never fade.”

After a bit more conversation, the League staff ushered Dolly out onto the pitch. The opening ceremony was starting soon, and Dolly was as ready as she’d ever been. It was like the muscles between her ribs were pulling her forward and into what she had been wanting for so long. She grinned when Leon’s voice boomed throughout the arena.

“It probably goes without saying but… hello Galar! I’m your Champion, Leon!” he called to the audience, who in turn let out a mighty roar at their Champion’s greeting. “The chairman is tied up with some business, so I hope no one minds me stepping in on his behalf in order to lead you all to greater heights as Pokémon Trainers of the Galar region!”

The wind was billowing through the stadium as Dolly stood beside the Gym Leaders.

“The time has come for you to battle it out until only the greatest challenger remains!” Leon continued. “So, on behalf of the chairman, allow me to say… let the finals matches begin!”

The crowd roared and Dolly turned again, only to stop at the sound of a familiar voice.

“Wait, you!”

She turned to see Bede storming up to her. The audience muttered amongst themselves, wondering who this pink and teal-clad man was standing across from Dolly in the middle of the pitch. Bede addressed the crowd, explained who he was, and where he had been. Then, he turned to Dolly.

“I have a score to settle with Challenger Dolly here.”

The crowd continued to mutter, and Bede called out to them again, stating he’d retire as a Trainer if he lost to her, how he only needed one final battle. As the commentator asked for the audience in the stadium and those watching from home to be patient as they decided, Bede squinted his eyes at Dolly.

“I know this is ridiculous of me,” Bede sneered. “But I had to say something… do something! Ever since _you_ showed up, everything I’ve done has gone wrong! It was Oleana who asked me to gather Wishing Stars for the chairman, but then the chairman himself disowned me…”

Bede’s shoulders tensed as he glared at the ground.

“And then that old bat comes out of nowhere and drags me into a boot camp on Fairy-type Pokémon! Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?! Covered in pink, dealing with quizzes and battles with Fairy-type Pokémon every day?! Because of _you_.”

He took a threatening step forward. 

“If only I had taken out the rest of your Pokémon after that Eevee, I wouldn’t be standing here, pouring my heart out to you.”

Dolly gazed up at him, and a small smile formed on her face. Bede paused, his scowl softened, and he stepped back with a huff.

“Why must you have this way about you, huh? I’ve never lost my cool before!”

Dolly’s eyes flicked about his face. Before she could reply, the commentator boomed over the stadium again.

“We’ve reached a decision, ladies and gentlemen! The Champion himself has accepted Bede’s sudden interruption! Is the Champion showing his love by giving every Trainer a chance to grow stronger? Or is it a trial for Challenger Dolly?”

A smirk formed on Bede’s face, and his familiar air of smug confidence returned.

“My will hasn’t been broken yet.”

Dolly was thrown into battle, and Bede’s familiar pink Pokémon flashed out. She couldn’t help but smile as they wove through their battle - he had certainly grown stronger. But, so had she. The flashes of light that once toppled her, that once toppled her Pokémon, only glinted beautifully around the stands as Bede’s Pokémon fell one by one. Dolly’s steps did not waiver, her Pokémon’s moves did not falter, and even Bede had a hesitant smile on his face. She was calculated, controlled, and her Pokémon’s abilities were not pushed, but highlighted and enhanced as they tore through a Mawile, through a Rapidash, and finally through his Hattrene.

The Hattrene’s cry echoed through the stadium as it fell, and Bede calmly returned it to its Poké Ball. He still had a small smile on his lips as he met Dolly in the middle of the pitch. When he opened his mouth to speak, shouts from the audience interrupted.

_“Stay in the League, Bede!”_

_“Yeah, keep being a Trainer!”_

His brows furrowed, and he whipped back to Dolly.

“B-but this isn’t what I planned!” he spat. “You keep messing up my plans! With everyone cheering me on like this, I have no choice but to continue my training as the Fairy-type Gym Leader...”

Dolly stepped toward Bede, and after a slight pause, she set her hand on his shoulder.

“You ought to. You’re strong, and it’s obvious you love your Pokémon,” Dolly said. 

He glanced at her hand, and his eyebrows furrowed as he looked back to her. 

“Why are you… why are you like this?” he whispered. “After how cruel I’ve been? After your Eevee and trying to get you disqualified?”

“I... understand your motives,” Dolly sighed. “I’ve been desperate, I’ve been selfish, and I’ve been cruel too. I’ve done things because I thought they would get me attention, or love. But now, I’m doing my best to move forward.”

Bede’s eyes softened as Dolly continued. 

“I didn’t agree with Rose’s decision,” Dolly confessed. “You should have stayed in the Gym Challenge. I thought he was too harsh, and I know he didn’t make any time for you. I know what it’s like to feel no one loves you, like the whole world hates you... trust me.”

Bede nodded slowly at the Trainer blazing before him.

“I know what it’s like to feel rejected,” Dolly said. “And I know what’s it like to claw and clamber to get someone to even look at you.”

She held out her hand. 

“But I also know now how important it is to have friends that lift you up,” she continued. “I’m not asking for you to call me a friend, Bede, but I hope… this can be a step towards that. I hope that you can take this as another encouragement to keep growing stronger, because I know you can. Because, obviously, _Galar_ knows you can.”

Bede looked down at her hand. Then, he looked around to the audience, and back into her eyes. He chuckled as he shook Dolly’s hand. 

“You’re an odd one, Challenger Dolly.”

“It takes one to know one, Bidet,” she grinned in return.

With a final squeeze of her hand, they made their way back off the pitch.

After a brief respite, a swig of some water, and bickering with Raihan when he tried to show her a ten-minute video on his phone, Dolly headed back onto the pitch as the finals officially began.

She blazed through battles with the Gym Leaders and tore through the bracket with ease. Nessa was furious to see that Dolly beat her for a second time (even faster than the first), Dolly could barely see Allister’s horrifying Gengar through her fingers covering her face, and finally she let out a laugh as Raihan sauntered onto the pitch. She beat him as well, almost feeling guilty for how high-leveled her Pokémon were at that point. Almost.

Dolly slumped onto the bench in the locker room and smeared the sweat and rain off her forehead. She wrung out her sopping wet hair, thanks to Raihan’s obsession with changing the weather, and heaved out a sigh before standing again. The red and blue League Challenge insignia glinted, as if winking at her. One final hurdle, and it was Champion Leon himself - the very man who endorsed her so long ago. She reached for her necklace, and her fingers flicked through the charms as she stepped through the double doors. 

Dolly would never get over the walk. She would never get over tense air, the muffled cheer of the crowd, or how her heart beat with each step. 

Beat the Champion, break the Curse.

There was one final hurdle, and he was already waiting for her in the center of the pitch. Leon grinned as the wind blew through his hair, swayed his cape. When she finally stood across from him, their megawatt grins were identical.

“The tense, still air on the pitch…” Leon started, gazing around. “And the exact opposite from the audience, cheering and yelling… They’re both fantastic, wouldn’t you say, Dolly?”

Dolly nodded.

“But remember,” he continued. “The audience is also a bit cruel. They want nothing more than to see one of us lose, after all. It can fill you with fear knowing that, but I absolutely love pushing past the fear. I love giving it everything I’ve got as a Trainer and seeing my team give everything they’ve got to seize another victory!”

Her heart was pounding in her ears as Leon blazed before her. Although she had seen each and every one of his battles through a screen, never before had she witnessed his passion and power so close. It oozed out of him, out of both of them, and the audience was going wild because of it.

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world, and I can’t get enough of it!” Leon continued. “I know you’ve been through a lot, Dolly, but that is what is going to make this a battle to remember. I can feel my partners itching with anticipation inside their Poké Balls… We’re going to have a real champion time!”

Leon folded his arms over his chest and called to the audience. 

“I’m the Galar region’s Champion, Leon! Me and Charizard, and all the rest of our team, will use all our knowledge and experience to crush you completely!”

As Dolly walked toward her end of the pitch, her heart beating in her ears, something flickered on the massive screen overlooking the arena. Her smile faltered as Rose appeared on it.

“Hello there, Leon and Dolly,” Rose smiled. 

Leon’s head whipped to the screen.

“Just letting you know, I think it’s time I brought about the Darkest Day,” Rose said from the massive screen. Although his smile was easy, Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together as Rose spoke with a tinge of anxiety in his voice - something she had never heard in him before. “It’s all for the sake of Galar’s future, of course.”

The air on the pitch was tense, still, but not for the battle that was supposed to occur. There was something eerie, something uncertain, that laced into every particle in Wyndon Stadium as Rose’s voice strained.

“Unfortunately,” Rose continued. “The energy released from the Darkest Day is too much for us to contain-”

His sentence was cut short when the screen glitched, and the stadium began to shake. Screams tore throughout the audience as a beam of light erupted from the center of the pitch.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Rose continued. The screen cut to footage from four of the Gyms across the region. “But it’s you who forced my hand, Leon. We had a chance to talk to Eternatus, we could have negotiated, and you refused to listen!”

The screen cut out again as Leon ran to Dolly, and he pulled her away as another beam of light shot out of the ground. They sprinted off the pitch and met Hop in the hallway to the locker room.

“That video stream was from Hammerlocke Stadium, right?” Hop asked as the stadium shook again. “What in the world did the chairman do?”

“I don’t know,” Leon said. He had to raise his voice over the screams from the crowd beyond the hallway. “But everything he was saying yesterday… Did he really pull this crazy stunt to solve some problem a thousand years in the future?! I’ve got to see what’s going on, I should have realized what the chairman intended to do before it came to this… I’ll take responsibility now for fixing this mess.”

Before either of them could stop him, Leon had sprinted off. Hop started to follow, only to pause when Dolly gripped his wrist.

“Hold on,” Dolly said. “The chairman was talking about the Darkest Day. That’s the thing where the sky went all dark once, ages and ages ago, right?”

“Yeah, but what does that mean?” Hop said as his eyes followed his brother. 

“Sonia said something about it way back in Motostoke,” Dolly continued, scratching her chin. “She was wrong then, because it turned out there were two Pokémon. Sonia thought the Pokémon might still be sleeping somewhere though, right?”

“Then we need to find them!” Hop said, stumbling to stand straight as another beam of light burst from the pitch behind them. “But where?”

Then, both their eyes widened. They whispered in unison.

“The Slumbering Weald.”

They broke into a sprint, tearing through the locker room and down the steps. 

“That illusion you tried to fight that day-” Hop said as they pushed open the doors to the Wyndon plaza.

“That vision, too-” Dolly added as they ran across the plaza tiles.

“It must’ve been one of the Pokémon that are supposed to be sleeping there!”

Dolly and Hop sprinted to a cab and it took off. They had little time to wonder at the sudden nightfall, as thick clouds were starting to swirl above their heads. The Corviknight pumped its fierce wings, and before long they landed in Postwick. They barreled out of the cab, sprinted up the dirt path, and nearly pummeled into Sonia, who was standing before the Slumbering Weald fencing.

“Hop and Dolly...?” she said, spinning around. “I completely forgot about the Championship match! What’re you two doing here?”

A door opened and a warm glow enveloped the air around them. It cut through the sudden nightfall, casting a yellow beam onto the path as Dolly’s mum came sprinting down their front steps.

“Haven’t you been watching the news at all?” she asked. “The tournament is off, Sonia! The chairman saw to that - and to sending the entire region into a state of havoc!”

Sonia started backwards. Dolly’s mum explained everything Rose said, and then about the clouds swirling over Hammerlocke Stadium.

“We’ve got to find the sword and shield Pokémon, Sonia!” Hop huffed as he pulled on the sleeve of her lab coat. She shook him off.

“I’ll catch up,” Sonia said. “I’ve got to look into something out here first, you two go on ahead!”

Hop nodded and pulled Dolly along instead, and they rushed headfirst into the Slumbering Weald. They passed the fence, passed the first few trees, and slowed to a walk as the nostalgic mist slithered around them. 

The two gravitated together as they made their way through the winding forest path. Compared to the rumbling and the beams of light erupting in all of Galar, it was like the Slumbering Weald was detached entirely. Their world existed of nothing but tall, dark trees, and the mist that swirled around them. 

When something rustled in the bushes beside them, Dolly hesitantly curled her pinky around his. It only took a moment before Hop deftly laced their fingers together and they continued forward, sidestepping around the tall grass and the little Sqwovets that darted about.

“Going into the forest after Wooloo that day…” Hop said quietly. “That was the start of everything, wasn’t it? A legendary beginning, really…”

“I’m sure whatever we’re about to see will be pretty legendary itself,” Dolly agreed, giving his hand a squeeze. He turned back to her, and that soft smile graced his lips. 

“Let’s head in,” he said. “And add another page to our tale.”

Dolly paused, and her brows furrowed as she gazed at Hop.

“Our tale?” she repeated quietly.

When Hop squeezed her hand, that gentle question brushed through her mind again. 

Could she be…?

Maybe…

Why else would her heart pound at the implication?

They traveled further into the forest, and the wild Pokémon darted about the trees. The Pokémon only watched and waited, as if they all knew the gravity of the state of the world - they could feel it as they all watched the two Trainers push forward hand-in-hand.

The fog started to thicken as they followed the river north. Dolly was grateful to be holding onto Hop this time, because she could barely make out anything past him. He slowed to a stop and looked around. 

“Ugh,” he huffed. “I can’t see anything. This fog is even worse than the last time we came in.”

Dolly sighed as well and peered around. The forest was cloaked in the thick mist, and Dolly could barely see the dirt beneath them or Hop beside her. She looked forward through squinted eyes. She could see two trees in front of them. Or were those bushes?

Her blood went cold, and her heart started to pound. Whatever it was that was looming towards them, the power that they exuded made the hair on her neck stand on end. Hop glanced at her, then followed her eyes. He froze. Two pairs of yellow eyes shone through the fog, tore into her soul. 

“Shield of Galar. Visit the shrine, best the beast, save the region.”

Then, each let out a mournful howl as the fog began to thicken. After the echo dissipated, they were gone.

That was the voice.

That was the Pokémon. 

Dolly was frozen in place, unable to move as Hop called after them. 

“What’re you two doing, yelling at the fog?” came Sonia’s voice from behind them.

“Come off it, Sonia,” Hop huffed, throwing his arms up in exasperation. “You had to have seen those two Pokémon! They were right in front of us!”

“That was the Pokémon!” Dolly yelped as she desperately turned to them. “The one from my visions, the one from Stow-on-Side, I know it!”

Sonia’s eyebrows pulled together. 

“You sure you haven’t lost the plot?” Sonia asked. “There was no one here but the two of you…”

“They went this way,” Dolly said as she pulled Hop forward again. “The one in front looked so familiar, felt so familiar. We’ve got to find them!”

“Hold on, Dolly,” Sonia said, waving her hands. “I’ve been doing more research, and I found something about a sword and shield Pokémon - their names are Zacian and Zamazenta. The writings said they were born somewhere beyond the Slumbering Weald sometime long, long ago.”

“If they’re the sword and shield Pokémon then maybe they’ve got those weapons, too,” Hop said. “Thanks, Sonia,”

“Come _on_ ,” Dolly huffed, still trying to pull Hop along. “We’ve got to go!”

Without so much as another wave to Sonia, Dolly and Hop sprinted deeper into the fog.

They followed the river, and as the path continued, Dolly and Hop slowed to a walk again. Hop wove their fingers together, and when the bushes rustled, Dolly curled her other hand around his arm. Soon, the only sound was the crunching of the dirt beneath their shoes, and faint chirps from the Rookidees in the trees. The further they walked, though, the quieter the birdsong became.

That voice that came with those piercing yellow eyes… it was the same voice Dolly heard the last time she was in the Slumbering Weald, and that very same voice she heard after that Perrserker knocked her off the bridge by Hammerlocke. 

It told her to best the beast, but what did that mean? Every time that voice spoke to her, it added another request. What, or whom, did she need to get past? What did she need to do to best the beast? To save the region? To break the Curse?

The fog began to thin as they made their way further down the path. The bubbling of the water beside them grew louder, and soon the mouth of the river opened into a small lake. Light trickled down through the canopy of trees, and the song of the Rookidees began again. Although the tension in her shoulders was intense, Dolly couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of wonder at the sight before her.

The Slumbering Weald had opened into a clearing, and the purple mist glinted in the light of the moon. The waves of the lake lapped against the shore, and there was a peace that blanketed the shrine. Their path was untrodden, and at the end, laid a dilapidated stone grave.

Dolly couldn’t ignore the strange familiarity that laced in the air as she and Hop approached. She was responsible for graves such as this, and even so, it was as if the one before her belonged to her too. 

Something clattered, and the noise cut through the peaceful clearing like a sword. They looked down to see it actually was a sword, or at least the remnants of one. Hop grimaced at the ancient artifact, and Dolly’s gaze lingered on the one beside it.

Shield of Galar...

Was it this?

“Guess the legends were true,” Hop whispered. 

Dolly picked up the shield. It was rusted, old, yet it fit comfortably in her hand. Hop did the same with the sword and grimaced again.

“Not sure what these will do,” Hop grunted. “Looks like they’ll fall to pieces if you so much as look at it funny.”

“It’s all we have,” Dolly said, and she again breathed out a sigh of wonder at the strange familiarity. “Maybe these things will help fight the Darkest Day.”

She wasn’t sure how helpful some rusted steel would be, especially when she and Hop had such strong Pokémon... Perhaps these things were a key, or a clue, to whatever needed to be done to stop the Darkest Day?

Whatever they needed to do, they needed to do it fast. Even though they were deep within the Slumbering Weald, untouched by the outside world, Dolly could only imagine how many more eruptions tore apart the earth. Dolly started forward. She needed to stop the Darkest Day, she needed to best the beast, she needed to save the region, she needed to beat the Champion, and she needed to break the Curse. She was so close, and yet the hurdles kept multiplying, but there was nothing she couldn’t do, nothing that could stop her from-

Hop grabbed her hand. 

“Dolls, wait.”

Dolly turned and the moonlight speckled down from the canopy above them.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” she said, hesitantly pausing beneath the archway.

“I know, but this is important,” he said as he stepped towards her. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, with all this...”

“We’ll be fine, Hop,” Dolly said as she scanned his face. “Even if these rusty things are useless, we’re two of the strongest Trainers in Galar.”

“I know,” Hop said, leaning an inch closer. “But we don’t know what we’re up against.”

Her eyebrows pulled together.

“Whatever it is, we’ll make it through this,” Dolly said, and gave his hand a squeeze. “I know we will.”

“… But if we don’t...” Hop said quietly. He stepped closer and held her hand to his chest. His heart thrummed beneath her fingers. “I need you to know something.”

As the specks of light fluttered through the canopy of trees, Hop tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The leaves around them were trembling, the Rookidees were watching and waiting in the trees, and it was as if the forest itself was aching as Hop held his breath.

“I… I… um…”

His hands were shaking as he swallowed, and his eyes were scanning her face.

“I…”

Hop breathed out a sigh, and he stepped back. She watched as he turned away and rubbed at his face. 

“Hop?” Dolly asked. Her head tilted as she watched him.

They were standing beneath the archway, and the vines draping from it whispered in the slight breeze of the Slumbering Weald. The waves of the lake were lapping against the stone and beams of moonlight highlighted Hop’s trembling shoulders. He turned again, and something gnawed within her when he stepped back to her, and again held her hands in his.

“Dolls, I love you.”

The words were as soft as the light trickling down from the canopy of trees around them. The waves lapped against the shrine, the leaves rustled around them, and the ache in Hop’s eyes made her heart stop. His hands trembled as he continued in a whisper.

“I mean it. I always have.”

She could hardly breathe, when he looked at her like that.

It was as if the wind had stopped, as if the Rookidees didn’t chirp, as if the light only glinted on the two standing still in the shrine. Neither heart was beating, neither strayed their gaze, as Hop held his breath.

And then, Dolly smiled.

“I love you too, Hop.”

Hop was barely breathing, he was barely moving, as he whispered as quietly as the leaves. 

“Really?”

“We’ve covered that a few times,” she grinned. “We’re friends, yeah? Of course we love each other.”

Then, his smile fell.

“No, I mean...” Hop said, as he gripped her hands tighter. Dolly’s eyebrows pulled together. “Well yes! I mean, we are, of course, but-”

Hop took a step closer as he desperately clung to her hands.

“But more than that.”

The leaves were rustling again, and the wind started to billow.

“Well, yeah, best friends,” Dolly said, pushing her hair from her face as it whipped in the wind.

The wind was howling now, pushing and pulsing around them. Whatever Hop said next was muffled, as a Corviknight and its cab driver landed beside them in a rush of feathers and wind.

“You both Dolly and Hop? Took a right long time to find you two!” the cab driver said. “Miss Sonia was pretty specific, but it was still tough with all these trees!”

Dolly grabbed Hop’s hand and pulled him towards the cab.

“You’re my best friend too, Hop, but we’ve got to go! Leon might need our help!” Dolly called over the howling of the wind.

As soon as they stepped into the cab, Sonia called them and filled them in on more information she gathered about the Darkest Day, and what she knew about what Rose may have been planning. Rose had awakened a Pokémon called Eternatus, that that Pokémon was where Wishing Stars came from, what caused Dynamaxing, and was what Leon was trying to fight at the top of Hammerlocke Stadium. She said she would meet them in Hammerlocke as quickly as she could.

The world was dark around them, although it should have been the light of midday. As they traveled, beams of light were erupting all around Galar - some in Wedgehurst, some in Motostoke, and dozens, maybe even hundreds, in the Wild Area. Although no noon sun shone over Galar, the beams of Dynamaxed light cast a glow over the land. Ash flew through the sky like gray snow, and even with the whipping of the wind around them, Dolly could hear faint cries from the ground below.

Dolly curled her pinky around Hop’s as she gazed over the destruction in Galar. When he didn’t lace his fingers around hers, she turned. He was still gazing at her in the same way he had in the Slumbering Weald shrine. It hurt, how he was looking at her. She wanted to never see him look like that, because he was looking at her as if his entire body ached. He was looking at her as if something were gnawing at his very bones. He was looking at her as if she were the moon, as if she were unable to understand the blazing heat of the sun. 

Instead, Dolly laced her fingers around his. She pulled him into a hug, and it only took one fluid motion before Hop curled his entire body around hers. He wove his hands around her waist, folded their legs together, buried his face in her hair, and heaved out a sigh. They sat like that only for a moment, or perhaps for an eternity, as the cab finally landed in Hammerlocke.

They thanked the cab driver and sprinted through the city. Raihan directed them into the stadium, Oleana directed them down into the energy plant, and it wasn’t until the lift opened that Dolly and Hop paused. 

Lights spontaneously flickered from the exposed wires above their heads, and emergency lights glowed on the floor, guiding them forward. The only noise was the sizzling of snapped cords, and the clunk of their shoes on the tin floor as they stepped down the dark hallway. The air was dry, and Dolly found it hard to swallow past the faint smoky smell in her throat. Their steps echoed, and the sound paused when glass crunched beneath their feet. They had reached the strange light at the end of the hallway. 

Before them was miles of glass tubes, some glowing harshly, others not at all, as they loomed over the room like underground skyscrapers. Glass was strewn over the ground, as were slabs of a strange indigo steel. Dolly’s eyes followed the trail of shrapnel, only to land on a capsule the size of a house, broken open, and laid bare. The blinding yellows and deep indigos contrasted the crisp gray suit of the man that stood before the rubble.

As Hop motioned to move forward, Dolly pulled him back by his hand. 

“Leon might need your help, who knows what that Eternatus thing is like,” Dolly said. “I’ll take care of Rose.”

Hop’s eyes widened.

“Are you mad?!” he hissed. “I’m not leaving you with that lunatic!”

She gazed up at him gently and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

“I’ll be fine, Hop, I promise.”

“But… what if he… what if you…”

Dolly reached up and brushed her thumb over his cheek.

“I’m not leaving you forever, Hop, just for this bit. Leon needs you, and I can distract Rose, or figure out what is even going on.”

Hop gazed at her, though his brow was still furrowed. He breathed out half a sigh and nodded. The electricity was sparking above them, sparking between them, as Hop gently cupped her face. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead. His kiss lingered, and when he broke off, he rested his forehead against hers.

“Good luck, love.”

Hop turned, stepped into the lift at the end of the hall, and was gone.

...So, she hadn’t imagined it the first time.

Dolly shoved down the ache that gnawed within her as he left and made her way across the steel bridge. Her shoes clattered against the floor, and her steps echoed through the massive chamber. The tinny sound of steel was laced with the occasional shock of electricity from the broken bulbs beyond her. The calm in Rose’s voice contrasted the sharp sounds around them, and yet, he seemed to harmonize with them as well.

“And what do you plan on doing, Dolly?” Rose asked, though he was still gazing into the abyss of the energy plant.

“I’m stopping the Darkest Day.”

“Why, it’s already begun,” he replied as he finally turned. He had an easy smile on his face as he held his hands behind his back. “We have brought about the Darkest Day, or should I say, the ultimate Pokémon - Eternatus. Our dear Champion is fighting Eternatus above us as we speak. But, it’s too late. I tried to tell him.”

Rose’s shoes clattered as well as he walked towards her, as if his steps portrayed the tinge of anxiety that his voice now so masterfully hid.

“From your perspective, I suppose it must seem that I am doing something terrible,” Rose said as he gestured to the rubble. “I don’t expect you to understand, but I must provide the Galar region with limitless energy to ensure everlasting prosperity. It is my purpose, my duty, my destiny.”

Rose reached down and picked up a shard of glass from the broken capsule around them. He turned it in his fingers as he spoke.

“...You are aware of what that must be like, hm, Dolly? To have a purpose in life, a destiny you must fulfill? Something you were born with, something you know to your very bones?”

Rose finally met her gaze, and, just like the glass between his fingers, something glinted in his eyes.

“Or perhaps… something in your blood?”

Dolly’s brow furrowed, and Rose tossed the glass to the floor. Her eyes followed him as he paced around the chamber.

“In order to solve the energy issue as soon as possible, we awakened Eternatus,” Rose continued. “But, we couldn’t control it. I feared that may happen, and I hoped to enlist your help… We could have used your ability, Dolly.”

Rose’s voice echoed in the grand chamber. His sharp cheekbones cast dark shadows each time one of the bulbs behind him flickered.

“The Nuzlocke Curse is quite a rare condition, as I'm sure you know. Such a terrible curse, with such strange benefits. I had hoped to use you to speak with Eternatus. We could have spoken to it, described our needs, and then we wouldn’t be in the conundrum we are now.”

“Pokémon aren’t tools, Chairman Rose.”

Rose paused in his steps as Dolly's voice cut through the chamber. He glanced at her again and chuckled lightly.

“Ah, interesting to hear you say that. It did take quite a bit of negotiating to keep you in the Gym Challenge, you know,” Rose said, still with that easy smile. “And quite a bit of negotiating with our Gym Leaders to get them to battle with you. Our ratings this year have been like nothing we’ve ever seen. They have also been the most contradictory, as I’m sure you can imagine. It’s not often we have so many Pokémon die in our Gyms.”

Her skin pricked at the word.

“But,” Rose continued. “I needed you to get stronger. Everything was going to plan, minus a few bumps in the road. It took quite a bit of persuading to get Opal to tell you her history, you know, and a bit of pocket change to keep a hostel running. I was worried you would drop out altogether after our experiment Dynamaxed that Perrserker. And yet, you prevailed. Good work, Dolly. I wouldn’t expect any less from a challenger endorsed by the strongest Champion ever to grace our beloved Galar region.”

Dolly’s mind flicked to the Glimwood Tangle, to the Wild Area hostel, to the bridge before Hammerlocke.

“And yet, it was all for nothing,” Rose sighed. “Because our dear Champion Leon wouldn't listen to reason. He wouldn’t let us utilize your talents, even for the sake of Galar’s future. And so, here we are, standing in the rubble of being too late.”

Dolly’s knuckles were turning white as she clenched her fists.

“You’re wrong,” she growled.

“Pardon me?”

“You’re wrong!” Dolly shouted again as she stomped forward. “I’m not just a tool you used, and neither are my Pokémon! They're living creatures that need love and care, just as much as you and I do. I’m not just a tool, chairman, and neither is anyone who’s helped me thus far. I'm not just a monster who can talk to Pokémon. I’m sorry that it’s taken until now for you to realize that.”

That easy smile was still apparent on Rose’s face as she spoke. When she finished, he offered her a respectful nod. 

“Well said, Dolly. You are quite perceptive - you saw right through my lie. Even if most of your friends refused my bargaining, I'm afraid I can't have you interfere with my plan to protect the future.”

Rose reached into his pocket and pulled out a Poké Ball. The green of his eyes glinted like the steel and glass around their feet, and his easy smile finally fell. Dolly stood firm on the tin floor of the energy plant as electricity shocked around them from the broken bulbs and bare wires. 

Soon, it was the metal coat of an Escavalier that glinted in the light of the broken bulbs as Rose hurled his first Poké Ball forth. It was the blaze of Jackson’s fire attacks, then the coat of a Ferrothorn, of a Perrserker’s claws, of a Klinklang’s gears, that all blinded and flashed in the sparkling light of the energy plant. With each attack, the floor rumbled, and the glass and shrapnel flung about, cutting at the two Trainers and their Pokémon. Rose’s Copperajah dented the floor when it appeared before them, and the support beams beneath them groaned when it Dynamaxed. 

Steel, fire, and electricity glinted, just as Rose’s light green eyes did, as they tore through their battle. Dolly was sweating, panting, her pulse racing as her blood coursed through her veins - the very blood that Rose so coveted. Stains of sweat, dirt, and blood saturated them both as they battled on the groaning steel of the energy plant. Rose’s Copperajah returned to its Poké Ball, and the clean cut and powerful man before her again had a tinge of anxiety laced around him. 

When the dust settled, the expression was gone as quickly as it came, and Rose chuckled.

“Again, most impressive, Dolly, that was satisfying,” Rose said with a nod towards her. He delicately brushed off his hands and wiped a drip of blood from his face where the glass grazed him. “I really do wish I could have seen the Champion match.”

Dolly’s eyes were glued to his every movement, and Rose gestured towards the dark hallway behind her.

“Of course I won’t stop you. Head up via the lift, if you wish.”

With a final nod to the chairman, with a final glance to those light green eyes, to that easy smile, Dolly turned, and headed towards the roof of Hammerlocke Stadium.


	31. Shield of Galar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 31 - Shield of Galar**

An eerie glow was cloaked over the lift and Dolly braced herself against its railing. The numbers ticked on the digital screen above the door as she rose higher and higher, and the yellow light flashed with each floor. Dolly steadied her breathing, though she had to cling to the railing whenever the lift shook. 

She wasn’t sure what would face her when the door opened. She hoped it would be a smiling pair of brothers, telling her that Leon caught Eternatus in a Poké Ball, and they could head back down. As the lift creaked, and as the floor numbers glitched to zero-zero-zero, something told her that wouldn’t be the case. The lift finally stopped, and the doors opened a crack.

Dolly pried them open just enough so she could squeeze herself through the sliver of space between the two silver doors. She tumbled out as the ground shook again, then she sprinted down the path, around the corner, up the steps, and stopped in her tracks.

Before her rose a creature like none she had ever seen; the Pokémon floating in the middle of the roof was like an indigo skeleton, with tendons and ligaments made of light. The vertebrae of its spine shone red, and whatever life it had in its body was pulsing through the clear glass of its cartilage. It was if this Pokémon harbored a universe within its shell and the gaseous ball at its core throbbed just as her heartbeat did. Its shapes were mechanical, yet organic, as it let out a shriek that seemed to shake the universe itself.

The sky was swirling black, and beams of the red Dynamaxed light shot into the air around the roof of the tower. The wind billowed whenever the Pokémon moved, and as it roared again, the clouds above them swirled thicker still. Dolly tore her eyes from the creature to see Leon standing below it, tossing a Poké Ball up and down in his hand. Hop and Sonia were standing behind him, then turned to rush towards her.

“Leon’s got everything covered,” Sonia said as she pushed her hair from her face when it whipped in the wind. “His team has really worn Eternatus down!”

“Yeah, took you long enough!” Hop said with a grin. “I was about to come down and punch Rose myself if you took any longer.”

“Aw, you’d punch a middle-aged man for me?” Dolly grinned in return.

Leon turned at the sound of their voices and waved at Dolly.

“Couldn’t stay away from such a champion time, huh Dolly?” he said. “I’m going to catch Eternatus in a Poké Ball, and we’ll get this madness under control.” 

Leon turned back to Eternatus, rolled his shoulder, and hurled his Poké Ball forward. It was as if steel was tearing against steel as Eternatus let out another ear-piercing screech and flashed into the Poké Ball. The ball fell and hit the ground with a ‘ _tink.’_

It rolled once.

Twice.

And froze.

Dolly couldn’t swallow past the lump in her throat as she waited, waited, for the final roll, and the final click. 

The only movement on the top of Hammerlocke Stadium was Charizard tearing through the air.

Then, the entire stadium shook as Eternatus exploded from the Poké Ball. Rubble and debris shot through the air, and Charizard’s sturdy stance wavered as the wind howled around them. After the initial explosion, through the noise of the glass and concrete, Leon’s grunt echoed across the roof. 

_“Lee!”_ Hop yelled. He tore into a sprint towards his brother.

Leon was lodged beneath a slab of concrete that fell from the top of the pillars. Hop and Sonia rushed to his side and started pulling away the chunks of brick, wires, and steel. Electricity shocked around them from the broken lights that edged the roof, and Hop had to stomp out a small fire as he tore at the rubble around Leon. Shadows flickered around them, and Dolly tore her gaze away when a shadow loomed over her. 

Eternatus was floating before her, pulsing and throbbing, shadowed from the red lightning around them and from the light of its core. Its screech shot through her skull, and the roof of Hammerlocke Stadium shook again. More rubble quaked around them, and Dolly locked eyes with the beast before her. 

“Eternatus!” she called over the roar of the wind.

It made no coherent response, only roared into the air again.

“Eternatus, we don’t have to fight!” she called.

Again, it made no response. It writhed about in a poisonous rage, unable and unwilling to negotiate to the girl before it. Instead, a ball of light formed in its mouth, and it started to grow brighter. Dolly jumped and rolled across the ground as the Dynamax Cannon attack tore through the space she was just standing.

Dolly smeared the dirt from her face and scoffed at the audacity Rose had to expect her to talk to this thing. Instead, she hurled her Poké Ball forth, and Jackson appeared beside her.

Fire blazed forth as her Cinderace attacked the massive Pokémon above them. She wasn’t sure what type it was, or what the advantage could be, but at least Jackson’s attacks were effective, as Eternatus writhed with each hit. As their battle continued, Dolly watched its movements - it was as if it couldn’t control itself, as if its only option was to release these attacks as if to release the tension within its body. Dolly’s eyes widened at the revelation: it was the glowing light of the Wishing Stars that burned at its core. It was their energy, their might, that were causing this great beast to pulse and writhe like it was. Only half of its attacks were aimed - the rest were merely bursts of energy trying to be released from its swollen core. 

The air was laced with fire, with blasts of poison, and the ethereal beams of a Dragon Pulse and Dynamax Cannon. Dolly switched out her team members, because even if Eternatus wasn’t focused on her, its power was pregnant, raw, oozing, and more dangerous than anything she’d ever seen.

As she battled, Eternatus was growing weaker, and the beams of light within it were becoming sparse. With another roar, it fell, and so did Dolly when the ground shook with its weight. Eternatus was trembling, shaking, quaking, as the dust settled. Dolly reached for a Poké Ball, ready to furl it at the creature before her. 

Although her aim was true, the Poké Ball merely tapped the Pokémon as a catastrophic explosion billowed around them. Dolly’s neck arched to see Eternatus lurching into the sky, as if catapulted to the stars. The sky was swirling, the dark clouds intensifying, and red lighting shocked around them. More beams of Dynamax light were erupting from the sky, and the clap of thunder rumbled louder and louder. There was no rain, only glass, concrete, and steel, that swirled around the arena. Dolly flinched as the glass and rubble cut at her skin, but her eyes were strained for any sight of Eternatus contorting in the sky.

“Look out!”

Dolly turned to the slab of concrete hurtling toward her, then her vision went black.

The earth trembled as a voice echoed.

“Shield of Galar.”

Her vision cut between a swirling purple mist and the swirling black sky above her.

“Shield of Galar,” the voice said again.

Her body was shaking, and again her vision phased from the swirling mist to Hop’s face above hers.

“Dolls!”

His voice was muffled, as if he was speaking to her through water. He called to her again, and her vision focused.

“You alright?” he asked over the roar of the wind.

She nodded and her eyes widened when she looked behind him, then into the air above them.

What was once the indigo exoskeleton of Eternatus was now a long coil of vertebrae, still mechanical, still organic, and at the end, a massive, glowing, clawed hand reaching towards them. Whatever creature Eternatus was before Dynamaxing was cast aside, as whatever it was now that floated before them was curled around the gaseous star at its center. Every bit of Eternatus was spiraling around the ball of light that once swirled in its chest - and every bit of rubble and shrapnel from the Hammerlocke Stadium roof whipped around it as well.

As Dolly and Hop sent forth their Pokémon, their moves only clattered weakly against the bricks of the tower. The rubble and shrapnel were like asteroids orbiting the star that dwelled within Eternatus, and none of their Pokémon’s moves were powerful enough to reach through the space.

“Our moves aren’t working!” Dolly called to Hop as the rubble whipped around them. Pebbles and flecks of glass lodged into her skin as they tumbled when the ground shook.

“We can’t just let this thing win,” Hop called in return. “We have to think of something!”

Dolly covered her ears as Eternatus roared, though instead of hearing a screech, a deep voice echoed through her mind. 

“Shield of Galar.”

Her eyebrows furrowed, and she squeezed her eyes closed as the voice repeated.

“Shield of Galar.”

Dolly gasped.

“The shield!” she said as the word finally struck her. “Hop, we need to use the shield and the sword!”

Hop’s eyes widened, and he nodded as the ground shook again. 

“It might be old and rusted,” Hop called over the wind. “But there’s got to be some use for it!”

Beams of light erupted around them again as Dolly and Hop grabbed the artifacts. Dolly held the shield to the sky, and Hop held the sword. The light that shot forth wasn’t the red of Dynamax, but a brilliant yellow. As the light faded, two massive Pokémon stood before them. They turned, and again, one’s yellow eyes bore into Dolly. The strange familiarity pounded in her chest at the Pokémon before her.

“Are you...” she started. “Are you the Pokémon from my visions?”

The great Pokémon nodded, and his bright red and blue mane waved in the wind.

“I am Zamazenta,” he said. His voice was the same that beckoned to her for so long, the same deep and powerful call, the same voice that held the authority of a king. “And you are the Shield of Galar. Bring the Sword of Galar, because now we must go, fight, and save the region!”

Dolly whipped her head to Hop, who was staring into the eyes of Zacian, just as she had been with Zamazenta only moments before.

“The Sword of Galar,” Dolly breathed.

Her attention was torn when Eternatus roared again. They readied themselves, and Dolly grinned just as Hop did as they sent their own Pokémon forth. The dust and rubble hurled around them as the five Pokémon wove around the roof of Hammerlocke stadium. A Cinderace, a Dubwool, and the legendary Zamazenta and Zacian, all blazed forth with everything they had. Eternatus roared and surged forth with great power as it again hurled poison, fire, and ethereal beams at the Pokémon and Trainers before it. The earth was quaking at its might, and Dolly feared the entire building may collapse. She and Hop needed to grip at the rubble around them, grip at one another, as the ground shook from the red lightning that struck the altar they were standing on.

Zamazenta and Zacian both glinted in the light, and their steel coats and weapons weakened Eternatus hit after hit. Explosions, fire, and smoke erupted around them. Dolly’s ears were ringing, Hop kept stumbling, and it was getting hard to breathe as the wind whipped around them. They battled for what felt like hours, days, years, and each attack brought Eternatus weaker and weaker. Finally, when Eternatus let out a feeble roar, Zamazenta turned back to Dolly as the ground rumbled again.

“Now is your time, Shield of Galar!”

Eternatus roared again, and Dolly hurled the Poké Ball forward. In another blaze of light, Eternatus flashed into it, and the Poké Ball formed a crater as it hit the ground. Dolly stumbled each time it rolled.

It rolled once.

Twice.

Three times.

And froze.

Then, the massive Poké Ball finally clicked, shrunk, and the world around them paused. The concrete slabs and glass shards hovered in the air, as if floating through water, as if time stopped.

The ground started to rumble, the concrete started to hurdle towards the earth, and the shards of glass shot through the air like hail. There was no time for celebration as the power of Eternatus was sapped from the atmosphere, and everything that was hovering around the arena was now catapulting to the earth. Dolly’s eyes widened, and she deftly returned Jackson to his Poké Ball as a jagged steel beam crunched into the ground where he was just standing. 

The wind was knocked out of her as Zamazenta lurched towards her and shoved her to the ground as a concrete slab formed a crater beside them. His body covered hers, and the massive Pokémon blocked the raining glass and steel that fell around them.

After a few more moments, the earth no longer trembled, and the only tinkle of glass was when Zamazenta stood to his full height. Dolly stood as well and gazed around the destruction and rubble of the Hammerlocke Stadium roof. The dust was settling, and the dark clouds that were swirling above them started to thin. Dolly met the eyes of the great Pokémon before her, and he bowed his head.

“You have bested the beast, and you have saved the region,” he said as his deep voice boomed around them. He lifted his head, and his yellow gaze bore into hers. “You rightly bear the title of the Shield of Galar, and the region is safe because of you. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.”

Dolly nodded, and Zamazenta offered her a slight smile. Zacian approached beside him, and she lowered her head as well.

“But, Zamazenta,” Dolly started again. “What about… what about the Curse? That was you, right? You can release me from it?”

“Only you can release it from you, Dolly,” Zamazenta replied. “I am but a messenger, a vehicle, a pathway to your goal. You must grow stronger yet, and then I can comply with your wish.”

Although she was anticipating a response such as that, Dolly let out a quiet sigh, and a nod. 

“Beat the Champion, break the Curse,” she mumbled dejectedly.

Zamazenta nodded again.

“Indeed. I have no worries that you will not perform excellently. Best of luck, Shield of Galar, I will be awaiting your return.”

Dolly nodded, and the two grand Pokémon before her started to shimmer with light. Their yellow eyes glinted in the sun, they looked beyond Dolly, and into the sky behind her. With another nod to the Trainer before them, Zamazenta and Zacian stepped beyond her, and leapt into the light of the sun. Dolly shielded her eyes at the blinding rays, and before she knew it, they were gone. 

As the bright rays glinted around her, Dolly basked in the warmth of the sun. She heaved out a sigh and realized that everything ached. She wondered if full restores worked on humans, because that crick in her neck made it hard to turn her head. Perhaps a potion or something could alleviate the ache in her neck. Or the ache in her back, or her knees, or her head, or everywhere else. But, despite her grievances, she had done it: best the beast, save the region.

Check and check.

Dolly reached out her hand to curl her pinky around Hop’s, only to swipe at the air. She did it again, then turned with a huff. When her eyes scanned the empty roof, her brow furrowed.

“Hop?”

No response.

“Hop?!” she asked again.

The sound of tinkling glass and rubble scratched against her ears, and she whipped her head around. Hop was lying beneath a steel beam.

Her heart stopped.

Dolly sprinted to where he lay, and with a surprising amount of strength, heaved the rubble off him and flung it to the side. She clambered down beside him and wiped the trickle of blood from his forehead.

“Hop, are you alright?”

He made no response, and Dolly’s eyes widened.

“Hop,” she repeated as she pushed his hair back, then cupped his face in her hands. Her eyes started to sting, and her words were growing more desperate. “Hop, c’mon, you’re alright, open your eyes.”

Her eyebrows pulled together when he didn’t move. 

“Hop, wake up,” she said, shaking him lightly. His head lolled to the side, and her eyes widened.

“No, no no no no no,” she whispered. Dolly couldn’t top the tears that came tumbling out as she hovered over him, willing it with everything she had, hoping with her entire self, that he would open his eyes. “Hop, please, wake up.”

Still no response.

“ _Please_ Hop, you’re my best friend,” she sniffled.

Silence.

“Hop, I need you,” Dolly whispered. “ _So much_ , you don’t understand.” 

She shook him again, and he still made no response. Dolly held a hand to her mouth, though she couldn’t stop the sob that cracked out.

“No...” she whispered as the tears tumbled from her eyes. 

Though her skin was so familiar with the sting of loss, the stab in her heart wasn’t the same this time. It wasn’t sharp, it wasn’t shooting. It was dull. It wasn’t just her fingers, her arms, her chest, but it reverberated through her entire body, as if she were the inside of a bell that was repeatedly struck. Dolly gently grazed her thumb over his cheek, brushed through the hair by his ear.

Another sob cracked out when she realized she may never see those golden eyes open. He may never again pull her against him, or tuck her hair behind her ear, or brush against her skin, gently and softly, as warm as the sun. How could she go on without her best friend? How could she continue without the one who she could tell everything and anything to? How could she live without the one who encouraged her, who sacrificed for her, who made her feel safe, who made her feel supported, who made her feel loved? How could she live without the one who was a friend to her when she wasn’t a friend to herself? How could she live without the one who, when she didn’t love herself, loved her with everything he had?

Dolly shook her head.

“I don’t think I can live without you, Hop,” she whispered.

With another sniffle, she delicately leaned down, and pressed her lips to his forehead. The air around them was still as Dolly rested her forehead against his. Then, she felt the tickle of eyelashes. She bolted up and Hop grunted.

“Hop?!” Dolly gasped.

Hop’s eyes opened slowly. 

“How the hell did you lift up that beam?” he croaked. 

Dolly couldn’t respond when the sobs racked her body as she flung herself against him.

“Why are you the one crying?” Hop grunted. “I’m the one that almost just died.”

“You’re alive,” Dolly whimpered, still curling around him and ignoring his question. “I’m so glad you’re alive.”

“Yes, I’m alive,” Hop said with a chuckle. “You need to have more faith in your best mate.”

Dolly managed out half a laugh, half a sob, as she hugged him tighter. Hop motioned to move back, but she had no intention of letting go any time soon. She curled around him with everything she had and buried her face in his neck. She didn’t even try to be discreet in her sniffling.

“Dolls I’m fine, you don’t need to blubber like this,” Hop chuckled.

She nodded, though her response was laced with a hiccup.

“Are you okay?” she muttered as she finally pulled back. She brushed her thumb over his cheek as her eyes scanned over his face. “You’re not hurt?”

“Just peachy, Shield of Galar,” he chuckled.

Dolly breathed out a laugh, and after finishing her injury assessment, looked into his eyes. 

“Well if I’m the shield of Galar, that probably makes you the sword.”

Hop pursed his lips, then nodded. 

“Hm. Sword of Galar. That’s got a nice ring to it.”

Dolly smiled again, though Hop’s mouth twitched up into a mischievous smirk. 

“Maybe I should get hit in the head more often,” he said as his eyelids lowered. “Kinda like how worried you are.”

Her jaw dropped.

“I-I’m not-,” she spluttered. “I-I mean you just almost died, you twit!”

“You can’t live without me, hm?” Hop whispered. Her cheeks flared when he bit his lip and raised an eyebrow. “You’re awful cute when you’re concerned about me.”

“W-well, no, I mean, I didn't mean-” Dolly stuttered as Hop curled his arms around her waist.

Her fervent denial was laid bare as Hop raised his eyebrows and gestured to how she was still very much curled around him. 

“Is this really the time for teasing?” Dolly huffed as her cheeks stained red.

Hop opened his mouth again, but his cheeky smirk was laced with a wince.

Dolly’s eyes widened and she scrambled up. Immediately she was hovering over him, poking and prodding, pushing his collar back, pulling up his sleeves, checking for rips in his clothes, looking for the source of the pain. She was riddling him with questions, stumbling through her sentences whenever he tried to speak.

“D-Dolls, calm down, I’m fine,” Hop stuttered as she poked and prodded everything about him. “I was just joking about you being worried-”

Her sentences were still racing as she ignored his rationale.

“Dolls?” Hop tried again. “Dolls. _Dolls._ Dolly. Dolores.”

Her hair hung like a curtain, her eyes darted around to find the source of the pain, and her questions were still a mile a minute.

_“Love.”_

She glanced up.

“I’m fine, really.”

“You better not be lying to me,” she said as she let out a frustrated sigh. Her thumb grazed over his cheekbone, and he tilted his head into her touch.

“When have I ever lied to you?” he said gently as he breathed out a laugh. “I said I was fine.”

And then, Hop smirked again. 

"You sure look like a Feebas, though.”

Even the wind didn’t howl as Hop grinned up at the girl hovering over him. Dolly’s expression didn’t change, and neither did Hop’s. After a moment, and then a moment after that, Dolly finally whispered back.

“Are you... are you serious?” she breathed.

Hop smiled and slowly sat up. Dolly fell onto his chest, though she was still staring at him incredulously.

“I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

Hop was still grinning, and Dolly’s brow furrowed as the fire started to blaze in her eyes.

“After what we just went through? After _everything_ we’ve been through?!”

Hop raised an eyebrow as Dolly’s sentences grew louder.

“I can’t even tell you how many bruises and cuts and scars and probably fractures I have from walking through the entirety of Galar!”

He tucked a loose hair behind her ear as she continued. He bit back a chuckle when she clutched his shirt in her fist.

“My poor face has been punched, slapped, cut, and all for what?! Because I wanted to make sure you were okay?! Or because I wanted to win through the bloody Gym Challenge?! The stupid thing that’s led by _your older brother_ , the one who every person thinks is so charming and daring but he can’t even chew with his mouth closed?! Then we’ve got that _other_ bloke who I thought was so beautiful and intelligent and he ends up being raving mad and-”

He cupped her face in his hands as she kept listing.

“-then he’s blowing stuff up to fix some problem a bajillion years in the future and it doesn’t help that he literally _owns the entire country_ so everyone is freaking out and the world is falling apart so we had to book it into some creepy secret underground power plant and he tells me he wanted me to _talk_ to the thing that’s blowing up the country so I had to battle him with all those exposed wires and glass everywhere-”

Hop slowly lifted her glasses off her face as she continued. He set them on top of her head, then tucked the loose strands behind her ear again.

“-so I didn’t exactly have _time_ to visit the salon because then I actually get up to the roof after a billion years on that stupid lift and then there’s this skeleton legendary monster thing-” 

Hop slowly pulled her closer to him, and her grip was softening, if not slightly trembling, against his chest. One of his hands snaked around her waist, and her sentences were growing quieter as she recognized that intensity in his eyes.

“...th-that we have to fight literally _on top of the world_ with all these chunks of building just flinging around in the sky and then two giant Pokémon jump out of nowhere -”

His gaze flitted from her eyes to her lips, and Hop leaned forward another inch. He settled her comfortably into his lap, and the decisiveness in his movements made red flare in her cheeks. 

“-and they… they um... helped me catch that Eternatus thing in a bloody Poké Ball and then we’re dubbed the Sword and Shield of Galar like I had in that vision a billion years ago and… and...”

Dark eyelashes fluttered as Hop’s gaze flicked from her eyes to her lips. He pulled her arms up from his chest and rested them over his shoulders. His fingers slid down again, and his hold on her waist was firm as he pulled her closer. She was fully pressed against him as her words grew quieter.

“...And… then they jump off into the friggin’ sunset and… and…”

He was staring into her eyes, and that familiar heat flared between them. 

“...and then I thought you died but you didn’t…”

He leaned closer, and Dolly’s eyelids were feeling heavy. 

“...and after all that, _that’s_ what you have to say to me...?”

Another inch closer.

“S-So yeah, whatever, of course I look like a Feebas…” 

Another degree hotter.

“I-I’ve got blood and dirt and that gross goo from that Eternatus thing smeared all over my face and… and...”

He lifted a finger, trailed it down her temple, her cheekbone, her jaw, then gently tilted her chin up.

“...and..i-it’s all in my hair because sorry I tried to help you after you almost die...”

He was only centimeters away, and her lips tingled where his breath hit. One of her hands curled into his hair, and her fingers wove between the strands.

“...s-so… I can’t believe you just said that to me…”

He was holding his breath as Dolly’s eyes fluttered closed.

“...that I look like a Feebas…”

His lips were grazing against hers as she continued to whisper.

“...you’re such a twit...”

Dolly breathed out her last word as Hop pressed his lips against hers. They paused, waited, feeling for themselves the reality of what they had both been wanting for so long.

Then, that first small, chaste kiss easily turned into another, and Hop tangled his fingers into her hair as he kissed her deeper, slower, and her hands clutched at his shoulders. Dolly breathed out when Hop leaned into her, and it was if their bodies were formed just for each other as she curved against him, trying to be as close to him as she possibly could. It was as natural as breathing, as natural as the heartbeat that pounded in her chest, as she melted against him.

His lips were just as soft as she had imagined, his kiss just as alluring as she had known for so long. It was soft, slow, tender, and Dolly’s toes curled at the intensity coursing from his body. His hold on her was gentle, warm, firm, as he kissed her again, and again, and again, and again. After a sweet eternity they finally broke apart, and Dolly opened her eyes to see Hop’s signature grin.

“Sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t know how else to get you to stop talking.”

Dolly pursed her lips. Then, as she was gazing into the eyes of her best friend, she gasped.

The revelation struck her, blasting against her like a howling gale. Their kiss. Those feelings. Anything and everything that had been coursing within her and the lightning that struck between them and the looks and glances and the pink auras and the Butterfrees swarming.

Everything fit into place. 

Although she was perfectly fine on her own, he made her better. He enhanced the goodness that already dwelled within her and encouraged her to heal and craft her qualities until they were nothing short of greatness. She had never once pictured her life without him, nor could she ever try, and all of those thoughts culminated when she realized how desperately she wanted to kiss him again.

“Holy shit.”

“...Dolls?”

And, that quiet question combed through her mind yet again:

Could she be… in love with Hop?

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes. 

This was among the truest things she had ever known. Looking into his eyes, seeing his smile, feeling safe and secure and warm with her best friend there - how could she be so blind? How frustrating it must have been for everyone around her as she denied it with every particle of her being for so long. It was as if she was finally being liberated at the acknowledgement that she was so irrevocably and ardently in love with him.

“Hop,” she whispered.

“Are you okay?” he asked as his eyebrows pulled together. “Was it really that bad?”

“I’m in love with you.” 

“Wha- _hhmph?!”_

Hop’s sentence was cut short when Dolly kissed him with everything she had. She curled her fingers around his collar and pulled him to her with as much strength she could muster. Hop didn’t seem to mind as she curled into him in desperation, though he pulled away only for a second to whisper to her.

“S-so, more than just a friend?”

“Yes,” Dolly whispered, and kissed him again.

“More than just a _best_ friend?” he muttered against her lips.

“Mmhmm,”

“I’ve waited my whole life to hear you say that,” he whispered, though his words were often interrupted by Dolly’s lips against his. “I love you too, I am so in love with you.”

Then, he kissed her a few more times, only to break off again.

“So you’re sure-”

“Stop talking,” Dolly breathed, as she kissed him again, and again, and again. 

The rubble around them was shifting, but Dolly could only focus on Hop curled around her and his lips as he kissed her. It was getting hard to breathe as that revelation pressed against her again and again. She was so in love with him, she was so, so, so in love with him. 

"Are you _serious?!”_

They froze.

“ _This_ is the time you choose to snog?!” Leon asked incredulously. “We almost just died, and you get the guts to _finally_ confess?!”

They whipped their heads to the source of the sound. Leon and Sonia had managed through the rubble around them and had stumbled upon Dolly and Hop tangled together. Sonia was laughing into her hand and Leon’s jaw was hanging open.

“Finally!?” Dolly repeated. “What are you going on about, _finally?”_

“Mate, I’ve been waiting for that since you moved to Postwick!” Leon retorted.

“And _all of Galar_ has been waiting for that since you both arrived on the pitch for the Opening Ceremony!” Sonia added.

Hop sat up straighter, and Dolly fell into his lap again as Leon set his hand on his hips and started counting on his fingers. 

“Boy and girl from the same town, best friends turned rivals, all the blushing and what-you-thought-were secret glances, him kissing you ‘for good luck,’ you two running to each other at the semifinals?! _He literally calls you ‘love’!”_

Leon continued on, listed even more examples, even going back to when Dolly first moved to Postwick. When he ran out of fingers, he borrowed Sonia’s. When he ran out of those, he borrowed Charizard’s. When he ran out of those too, he threw his arms up. 

“The list goes on! You are literally the only one surprised by this,” he laughed again.

“I-I...” Dolly stuttered, as she processed his words and his very long list. Hop kissed her temple and tugged her against him again. She didn’t realize how obvious it really was until Leon said it out loud, and Sonia confirmed it. 

“I can’t believe how many fan pages there are for the two of you, and even more shocked you haven’t seen any of them,” she added, scrolling through her Rotom phone and showing them an example.

“Sorry I’ve been a little _busy_ , haven’t looked at my phone much,” Dolly huffed as the heat flared in her cheeks.

Hop laughed and kissed her cheek. She didn’t even want to imagine how pink her face was, what with her heart beating a thousand miles a minute. Those familiar Butterfree were back, stronger than ever.

“Ugh, you two are so _cute!”_ Sonia squealed. “Ah, to be young.”

Dolly waved Hop off as he chuckled. They both finally rose, and dusted off the debris, dirt, and a bit of Eternatus goo.

“She really is so cute, hmm?” Hop hummed as he pulled Dolly to him.

“Alright you two, enough of that,” Leon said with a laugh. “Not sure how much longer I can watch you two snog. I think we’ve all got a date with the hospital.”

Sonia and Leon started towards the lift and Dolly tried to follow, only to be pulled back by her hand. Hop was gazing at her softly, a smile still on his lips.

“I really am in love with you, Dolls,” he said quietly. Then, he huffed. “I’ve tried to tell you like a thousand times, but you’re the most oblivious person I’ve ever met.”

Dolly bit her lip and looked down, and the warmth and sincerity in his words spread through her body. He had never been a very good liar, and the thought made her blush. 

She stepped toward him and hesitantly looked up. He smiled and leaned in again and kissed her softly. The tenderness of his touch made her fingers tremble as she thought how finally, _finally,_ she could kiss her best friend. All it took was travelling through all of Galar and him almost dying, but, better late than never. The ambiance was finally perfect, especially with the Eternatus goo and building shrapnel lying about. They broke apart and she couldn’t help but smile up at him. When she did, his eyebrows pulled together, and he heaved out a sigh.

“And there you go again, looking so cute,” Hop said. “Do you know how hard this whole trip has been for me? What with you looking like that and me _not_ being able to kiss you?”

Dolly pursed her lips at him, knowing full well she probably looked like a Tomato berry. 

“Oh please,” she laughed. “You’re so dramatic.”

He raised his eyebrows and let out an incredulous huff. 

“Dolls. You don’t understand. I said I have _always_ been in love with you.”

He took a step toward her, that strange intensity burning in his eyes. When he leaned in, his kiss was a little harder, a little more desperate, and her eyes shot open when a soft moan escaped his throat. 

...That was new.

Her eyes closed again as she leaned into him, letting him hold onto her in the way and kissing him in the way she had imagined so many times. Everything he said; she couldn’t disagree with him. Whether she acknowledged it or not, she had wanted this for so long too. His smile and his hands and his eyes and his security and his lips and his warmth all holding onto her like that; it almost made her knees buckle. Their embrace was cut short by their frustrated friends as Leon called out to them.

“Come _on!_ You’ll have all the time in the world to snog later! You need to worry about that blunt-force trauma.”

“Alright, alright,” Dolly huffed as she pulled away from him and tried to wave the heat off her face. “That’s enough of that, it’s not like we’ve got a quota to fill.” 

“Wait, hold on,” Hop said, pulling her back. “I was right.”

“Right about what?”

“You need another Hop kiss.”

He leaned in and kissed her again.

“Hop,” she grumbled as her face flared red.

“Okay just one more,” he said, then kissed her again.

“Come on,” Dolly laughed as he kept trying to kiss her.

“I like kissing you,” he mumbled, then kissed her again. “I’ve wanted this for a _lo-ong_ time.”

Dolly let him have one more kiss, or maybe two, then they walked hand in hand off the roof of the Hammerlocke Stadium. The four of them stepped into the lift, and as soon as the door closed, they slumped against the walls and let out a collective groan.

“My entire body is sore,” Leon grumbled, rolling his shoulder. “I would say that was not a champion time.”

Dolly breathed out a laugh, her thumb brushing over Eternatus’ Poké Ball in her pocket.

“Ace job, though, all of you,” Sonia said, setting herself up on her elbows against the railing of the lift. “You all rush up in the nick of time and save the world, real ace.”

“And you too, Sonia,” Hop grinned as he set himself back on his elbows as well. “Not sure we would have gotten as far as we had without all your help.”

“You’re incredible, Sonia,” Leon agreed with a nod. “Not sure where I’d be without you.”

“Lost, probably,” Sonia said.

“Probably,” Leon smiled. 

Sonia waved him off as her cheeks tinged darker. Hop and Dolly glanced between Leon and Sonia, then at each other, and their eyebrows raised.

The lift slowed, then came to a halt as the doors opened to the underground energy plant. The four stepped over the debris and shrapnel littering the floor as Dolly looked into the chamber where she battled Rose. The capsule that contained Eternatus was still sitting solemnly at the back, highlighted by the glow of the lights around it. She vaguely wondered where Rose went. They stepped into the next lift and Sonia turned to Hop.

“You know Hop, work has been really piling up lately. I could use a hand at the research lab.”

Hop raised an eyebrow. 

“What do you mean?”

“Your intuition with Pokémon is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Sonia said as she twirled her hair around her finger with a grin. “You’re even more apt to know how they’re feeling than Dolly is, and she can talk to Pokémon. You’ve been invaluable with my research, and I want you to come help me at the lab. Come be my assistant.”

Hop’s eyes grew wide.

“Really?” he breathed.

Sonia nodded.

“You’ve already got a base knowledge from Pokémon physiology, and your help with the Darkest Day has been invaluable. I’d think we’d work well together, and I think you’d be an excellent Pokémon professor.”

Dolly’s heart swelled as she watched a smile bloom on Hop’s face.

"A Pokémon professor…” he whispered. 

“I second that, little brother,” Leon beamed. “After watching your battle with Dolly and knowing how you’ve interacted with Pokémon your whole life, I think it’d be a perfect fit.”

“Me too,” Dolly added. “And I’ve told you a thousand times how amazing you are with Pokémon. Better than anyone I’ve ever seen, too.”

Hop’s small smile easily grew into a megawatt grin. 

“Funny that you mention that, Sonia, because I’ve been thinking about asking you the same question,” Hop beamed. “I’ll be the most ace Pokémon professor there ever was!”

Sonia laughed as the lift reached the atrium of Hammerlocke stadium. Dolly squeezed Hop’s hand and smiled up at him.

“Professor Hop,” Dolly said. “That’s got a nice ring to it, too.”

“I’ll say, way better than rubbish ‘Sword of Galar,’” Hop grinned.

Dolly laughed and rolled her eyes as the four made their way out of Hammerlocke Stadium. The sun was beaming in through the entryway, and the warmth spread over the room, over Dolly, and over the region of Galar.


	32. Coronation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 32 - Coronation**

Today was the day.

Actually this time. 

Dolly gazed out her hotel window that overlooked the city of Wyndon. The crowds had amped up significantly after their debacle with Eternatus, as the news had been broadcasted to all of Galar, and now it seemed all of Galar was here to watch the legendary Championship match.

After their battle with Eternatus, the four of them did pay a visit to Wyndon’s hospital, per Leon’s request. Thankfully everyone was perfectly healthy, but they all made sure they rested for a few days there, just in case. Dolly was, unfortunately, quite disgruntled because her heart rate monitor was incredibly telling and would beep like mad whenever Hop kissed her. Much to her chagrin, he made sure to comment on how loudly and quickly it was beeping whenever he hovered over her lips, and the more it happened, the more he tried to make it happen. The nurses there quickly grew frustrated with them, as they would rush into the room whenever her heartbeat would spike. And, despite Dolly’s flustered retorts, that was... rather often. 

Additionally, apparently having Champion Leon on the floor wasn’t helping matters, as he continuously wandered into prohibited areas when trying to find the cafeteria. Sonia’s Yamper busted some equipment in her room, Sonia tried to fix it while making it more efficient but not ‘to regulation in accordance with the rest of the hospital equipment,’ and none of the hospital staff were upset when the four of them were finally discharged.

The match wasn’t for a few more hours, and Dolly couldn’t stop pacing. Her and Hop’s mums had come up from Postwick, and they, Leon, and Sonia were all waiting downstairs for a final meal before the match. Dolly probably wouldn’t be able to eat anything thanks to her nerves, but it would be a better use of her time than pacing around her room like she had been all morning. She stepped out into the hallway, over to the lift, and it sounded once she reached the lobby. A smile broke over her face when she saw her gaggle of friends and family all talking together.

“Good morning, my little Pecha berry,” her mum said as she wrapped her into a hug.

“Hi mum,” she smiled into her overalls. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Her Pokémon were glad she was there, too. Her mum doted so much on her Pokémon team in their hotel room the night before, even Rouge mentioned how ‘ace Dolly’s mum was.’ Her mum and Jackson were attached at the hip, and he kept following her around. Dolly tried to hide her pout when Jackson went to wait in the lobby with her mum instead of her room with her.

“Ready for lunch? We’re a bit early, but we can probably start walking over soon,” Leon said. 

“Oh!” Dolly’s mum said as she stepped back. “And did you know Sonia is Professor Magnolia’s granddaughter? Who knew we had such a genius as a neighbor!”

“I did know that,” Dolly laughed, looking at her friend. Sonia’s cheeks were tinged pink as she twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

“Apparently, she’s been studying Dynamaxing, the Darkest Day, _and_ the Nuzlocke Curse! What a full plate, but she’s been telling us so much about it, and it is just so fascinating!”

“Sonia’s making me go find a notepad so they can geek out even more,” Hop said, jokingly rolling his eyes. “I’m telling ya, guess that apprenticeship is starting sooner than I thought. Already making me haul around her stuff like a Mudbray.”

“Oh quit whining and go find it, it should be up in my room,” Sonia laughed, waving him off. 

“Dolly, will you go with him? That boy is hopeless when it comes to finding things,” Hop’s mum sighed. 

“Him and his brother both…” Sonia added with a grumble.

“We’ll wait for you outside!” Jackson grinned, still shadowing her mum. Dolly nodded, turned back around, and followed Hop into the lift.

It was quiet in the hotel hallway, as everyone was outside enjoying the sunshine in the plaza. They made it into Sonia’s room and started poking about for her notepad. Dolly picked around her nail as her eyes scanned the room. Hop’s fingers wove around hers as she moved towards the dresser, and she raised an eyebrow at him. He didn’t meet her eyes when he shrugged. 

“You won’t pick at your fingers if I hold your hand. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t help you break those bad habits?”

Dolly rolled her eyes and turned back to the dresser. Sonia said turquoise checkered notepad, right? Here was an orange one, a turquoise one without the checkered print, a pack of sticky notes, and a notebook. What was the difference between a notepad and a notebook? Anything? Sonia sure did have a lot of one of the two… No checkered turquoise, though. None on that dresser either. Hop interrupted her train of thought by snaking his arms around her waist and tugging her body against his. He set his head on her shoulder, and she patted his hair as she looked about the hotel room.

“Could be in me an’ Lee’s room, she’s been spending a lot of time with Lee,” he muttered against her hair. She nodded. There certainly weren’t any turquoise checkered notepads that she could see.

They made their way down the hall and Hop gently swung their hands back and forth. They stepped into the room and Dolly started leafing through the cabinet as Hop resumed his position hugging her from behind. It didn’t take long before he was pulling her hair from off her neck and kissing her cheek. She pulled out a couple books and magazines, but he was certainly getting harder to ignore, as his lips trailed from her cheek to her temple to behind her ear. The next desk over was only hip height, but she couldn’t reach it, what with the way he was holding her. She swatted at him as he chuckled from behind her. 

“What, a girl says I love you and suddenly you can’t keep your hands off her?” she pouted playfully as she turned to face him. “Are you getting back at me for grabbing at you in my sleep? Because I was unconscious then, you know.”

“I like it when you blush.”

At that, Dolly’s face grew warmer.

“I’ve made it somewhat of a personal goal to see how red I can get you,” Hop continued matter-of-factly.

Dolly pursed her lips and rolled her eyes as she turned back to the desk. 

“That’s a stupid goal,” she huffed. She couldn’t be _that_ easily flustered. 

Right?

“What, you don't believe me? It’s literally so easy.”

She turned back to him again, and immediately wanted to smack that stupid, smug smirk off his face. 

“Oh no it’s not,” she huffed as she stood tall and squared her shoulders. “I’ve grown, I’m much more robust than I once was.”

“Mmhmm,” Hop hummed as he slowly inched towards her. “See, _I_ think you’re the same as you’ve always been with tall, dark, handsome men. I know your patterns. I know how fast your heart is beating right now.”

Dolly let out an incredulous huff as she crossed her arms. 

“Oh, you think so, huh?”

“Yeah, I do,” Hop grinned as he leaned his head towards her. 

“Prove it.”

He paused in his steps toward her, and a devious grin inched onto his face. Now was not the time to waiver. She’d prove it to this guy that she was a wafery napkin girl no longer. She was a strong and powerful woman - one who could resist the charm of this tall, dark, and handsome man. 

That thought immediately faltered as he took another step toward her, his tall frame more apparent the less room there was between them. She stumbled against the desk behind her, and Hop set his hands on either side of her hips.

“How about now?” he whispered.

Dolly cleared her throat.

“N-nope. I’m, um, I-I’m unaffected.”

Stuttering. Nice.

Hop leaned closer, and her eyes started to flutter closed.

“Are you sure?” he purred. “I can tell how honest you’re being by how many extra syllables were in that sentence.”

Dolly didn’t trust her mouth, so she lifted an eyebrow in retort.

“Fine,” he grinned. 

In one swift motion, he lifted her up and set her on the desk surface as she let out a feminine ‘ _oof._ ’ He pulled her knees apart and set himself between them, curled his arms around her hips, and trailed a finger up the line of her spine. He grinned when she shivered, and Hop leaned his head next to her ear.

“And how about now?” he whispered.

Dolly swallowed hard.

“N-nope. Still nothing.”

“I’ll have to try harder, then.”

Hop’s breath was hot on her neck when he leaned down. She felt him smile against her skin when she wove her fingers into his hair. He gently kissed her neck, kissed under her jaw, and Dolly was vehemently trying to not melt under his fingertips. His lips dragged across her throat slowly, painstakingly slowly, and she was starting to breathe harder. The second his tongue lightly touched her skin, Dolly unintentionally let out a squeak. Hop grinned.

Hm. Whoops.

“See?” he whispered as he lifted his head. “Easy.”

Her face was flaring red. 

“Half of Galar is literally right out that window, you know,” she growled. “And so is my mum.”

“They can’t see us.”

Dolly gasped and swatted at him. He caught her hand and held it to his chest. His heart was beating as quickly as hers.

“Do you want to stop…?” Hop asked. When she bit her smile back and shook her head, he smiled too.

“I’m sure they can wait a bit longer for that notepad,” Dolly muttered.

Hop chuckled as he tilted his head to kiss her cheek, and he pulled her arms up over his shoulders. He lifted her glasses up to kiss her forehead, her eyelashes, her nose. She let out a giggle as his lips peppered her freckles, and when he ran his thumb under her jaw, she was sure he could feel her pulse racing in her neck. At least there wasn’t a stupid heartrate monitor beeping at them this time.

Well, he just about got every spot on her face except one. She waited for him to press his lips against hers, maybe like he did so tenderly at the top of Hammerlocke Stadium. Or maybe it would be hungry, and he would let out a groan like he did then too, maybe a moan would escape his throat, all because of her. Maybe he would pick her up and toss her on the bed, maybe he would pin her wrists down, maybe she would see those golden eyes leaning over her like she had imagined for so long. Her face warmed at the thought, and Dolly curled her leg around his. He held her thigh up with one hand, and the other was tilting her jaw as he leaned closer to her. She could feel him hovering above her lips, pausing, waiting.

After a moment she peeked, only to see him still inches from her face.

“Yep,” he whispered. “Pinker than a Pecha berry. Looks like I just got a new high score.”

Dolly gasped as Hop let out another laugh.

“Sorry, can’t resist. You’re just so cute when you blush like that,” he shrugged. “Okay, let’s find that notepad.”

He uncurled her leg from his and peeled her hands off of his shoulders. He turned and started leafing through the papers beside them, and Dolly’s mouth was hanging open. She threw out her palms in retort.

“Hey, wait a second!”

He turned to her and raised an eyebrow. 

“What?”

“Ugh, come on,” she huffed as she crossed her arms. “You can’t just do _that_ and then leave me here! You have to, you know...”

Hop grinned again, stood straight, and loosely held his hands behind his back. 

“What ever do you mean?”

“Don’t be an idiot.”

“Why Dolls, do you… want me to kiss you?”

Dolly pursed her lips and glared up at him. When he didn’t move, she let out a huff, grabbed at his sleeves, and attempted to move his hands back to where they were only moments ago. His hands flopped down lazily.

“Hop, come on,” she whined.

He slammed his hands on either side of her.

“Ask me.”

Dolly’s breath caught in her throat. She swallowed and glanced to the side, unable to match the intensity in his gaze. 

“Y-you’re being annoying,” she grumbled as her cheeks flared again.

“Ask me to kiss you.”

Perhaps she was still a wafery napkin girl. She could live with that. 

“Hop, _kiss me_.”

“That wasn’t asking.”

She really wanted to smack him again, but her fingers only trembled as she clutched at his shirt. She swallowed again, her face burning up as his eyes bore into hers. She was glad she was sitting on this stupid desk, otherwise her legs probably would’ve given out from the pressure of his gaze. She looked up at him through her eyelashes.

“Will you kiss me, Hop?” she whispered. 

He won that round.

His cheeks tinged darker, and he cleared his throat. Suddenly Hop’s calm and cool bravado was gone, and his eyes flitted to the ground. She curved her hands around him, slid her fingers under his shirt, and felt along the dimples on his back. His eyes widened and he cleared his throat again.

Or maybe… she won that round?

“Please, love?” she whispered again. “Won’t you kiss me?”

Hop nodded a tad too vigorously, and quickly leaned in to kiss her.

“What kind of rubbish was that,” she breathed softly between kisses.

“Just trying to make up for all the time you made me wait,” Hop mumbled against her lips. “Wanted to see if it would make you blush.”

If that was the case, then he won that round too.

“You were just as bad,” Hop grumbled. “You can’t… _look_ at me like that, a-and then _touch_ me like that. My whole plan went to pot.”

Dolly giggled, and Hop smiled against her lips as he kissed her again. The longer they kissed the hungrier she got, as she too wanted to make up for the entire time, they never touched each other, even though the entire time they wanted to. All that time glancing from his lips to his eyes, and now that she had it, she wanted more. Her toes curled when he started breathing harder, started pulling her closer to him. Her body curved against his as he clutched at her waist, and he let out a small groan as she leaned into him. She kept sliding back on the desk until Hop grunted in frustration when he kept having to pull her back. He picked her up, tossed her onto the hotel bed, and crawled over her.

Finally.

Golden eyes bore into brown as he leaned in again, kissing her as if he had never been touched in his life. His hand tangled into her hair as he moved from her lips to her cheek, from her jaw downward. Her eyebrows pulled together as she felt that passion when he bit her neck. His breath was staggered as his lips trailed down to her collarbone, kissing, then finally biting at the skin.

“And now they’re from me,” he growled.

“What...?”

“Didn’t like seeing those marks from Raihan. Now they’re from me.”

Her eyes widened at his words, and those Butterfree were flapping against her gut. He kissed at the marks gently, and his lips trailed delicately over the tender skin.

“Hop, we need to go soon,” she whispered. 

“They can wait a bit more,” he grumbled against her neck, then moved up to her lips again.

Yeah, that was fine with her. He seemed to grow more frustrated the longer he kissed her, and his gentility was capped with a burning desire. Her eyebrows pulled together as each kiss grew a little more desperate.

“Every time I would touch you, you would just lean into it,” he mumbled through his kisses. “Arceus, and you would just fall asleep on me like it was nothing, and after that Beartic on Route 10… Did you know what you were doing to me? Looking like that, touching me like that, leaning over me like that...?” 

He dropped from his hand to his elbow, curling his other hand into her hair. She could almost feel his frustration as he hovered over her lips. That familiar heat from that night was back, as was intensity in his eyes. He kissed her again, then whispered into her ear.

“You don’t even know how much I had to restrain myself.”

So that heat _wasn’t_ from that lantern. Huh. 

Her eyes fluttered close as he stroked a finger down her face. His thumb traced along her cheekbone, brushed over her lips, then tilted her chin up. He kissed her again, and she felt the heat from that night bloom throughout her face, her body, her skin. Her temperature was rising, just as it always did when he was so close to her. She had to grip at the sheets when he kissed her so passionately like that. His kisses were intense, and it was getting hard to breathe. Their lips parted and she couldn’t help but moan when he kissed her even deeper.

Then, he held onto her and rolled over, so Dolly was lying on his chest. She grabbed his collar and pressed her lips against his, and she kissed him with everything she had, parting his lips like she had wanted to ever since seeing them like that on Route 10. It seemed Hop was startled by her fervent touch, his fingers now gripping harder against the bed. His eyebrows pulled together as she pulled his hands up onto her hips, sliding his fingers under her shirt.

She kissed him, smiling at the way his hands trembled against her skin. He kissed her back hungrily, only to grunt as her hands trailed up under his shirt. He was breathing harder when she slid her hands up, feeling the soft, lean muscle while tugging his shirt up.

“D-Dolls,” he breathed.

Hm, that was new too.

He only let go of her hips to tug it off completely. His face reddened when she sat back to take in the view. Hop was breathing hard, especially when she gazed down at him like that. When he sat up, she was surprised to see him pause. His hands hovered over her as his eyes softened. He swallowed, then he gazed up at her again.

“Hop, it’s okay, I’m not going to run away.”

He swallowed again and nodded, gazing into her eyes. She shivered as his fingers trailed up her spine, and she leaned into him again. Hop slowly leaned back, and Dolly set his hands on her waist as she kissed him. It was as if his whole body was slightly shaking beneath her as her kisses trailed down his throat. She could feel the tension beneath her lips.

“Love,” he whispered. 

“Hm?” she hummed against the side of his neck.

“W-we should probably-” he stopped mid-sentence when she bit under his jaw, right where his heart beat. Air slid in through his teeth and his fingers clutched harder around her waist.

...Interesting.

“I can see why you did that before, this is fun,” she whispered.

“N-not so high,” he whispered half-heartedly as she bit again, then kissed. His eyes fluttered closed. His fingers wove into her hair, lightly holding her head in place as she worked at the spot on his neck.

Was...he sensitive there? She’d tuck _that_ bit of information away for later. She could feel his pulse racing beneath her lips. Hearing him groan like that and feeling it in his throat was certainly an interesting combination. 

“That better not bruise,” he breathed. “Not like I’ve got a collar to hide that thing,”

She finished, kissed the mark, then smiled and lifted her head. His cheeks were pink, his lips were raw, and he was gazing up at her through half-lidded eyes. He sat up, kissing her slowly now as she settled herself in his lap. They broke apart again, and he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

When he smiled softly, Dolly couldn’t help but think that yes, this is what she wanted. As he pressed his lips against hers, she could feel the desire, but she could also feel the love. She could feel the fulfilling love as she was held by someone so safe and kind who knew everything about her and loved her still. She could feel the love as she kissed the man who she, who her friends, and who her family all loved. Even just the gentility and caution of his touch was filled with more respect and love than she could have ever imagined. She couldn’t help but smile, and Hop broke off when she laughed.

“Why are you laughing?” Hop grumbled. “You’re really breaking the mood, you know.”

“I just… I love you a lot,” she smiled, cupping his face with her hand.

Hop shook his head and breathed out a laugh. He kissed her one final time, and she could feel him smile against her mouth when they finally broke apart.

“Wow, even more pink. Looks like I’ve got another new high score,” he hummed, gazing at her through half-lidded eyes. “Do you, like, need a minute to cool down?”

“Do _you?”_ she laughed. She shoved him over as he chuckled, and they flopped down on the bed. “Thankfully the Challenger’s uniform has a collar to cover these marks, you twit. We need to go, or everyone’s going to wonder where we are.”

She tossed his shirt to him and stood. She adjusted her clothes, combed through her hair with her fingers, only to have Hop pull her down onto the bed again.

“Don’t get greedy,” she laughed. “We really need to go, I’m not going to miss the Championship match just because you want to make out.”

“Just one more minute, just a hug,” Hop hummed, rolling his arm over her and pulling her into him. He latched his legs around her and snuggled his head against her neck. “Later today the whole world will be watching you and Lee, and I want you all to myself, just for one minute.”

“You’re so weird,” she laughed, patting his head. “Snogging one second, snuggling the next.”

“Yeah well I want to show you how much I love you. So. Deal with it,” he sighed, then nestled closer to her.

“You seem much more confident lately. Not sure you would have ever pulled a stunt like that before,” Dolly said. “‘ _Ask me_ ,’ like pff, what kind of rubbish was that?”

“You liked it,” he grinned, kissing her jaw. “Just wish there was a heart rate monitor again to prove it.”

“I don’t, geez, that was so embarrassing,” she laughed. 

They lay there for a while, their breathing slowing as they held one another. After another minute Hop spoke up again.

“I just feel like I’m where I should be,” he said, squeezing her against him. “And it’s making me confident. I can finally kiss the woman I’ve loved forever, me and Lee’s relationship has never been better, and the idea of researching and being with Pokémon is fitting perfectly… I think I’m finally feeling that passion you and Lee have talked about so much. I know I haven’t technically started, but I feel more confident about being a Pokémon professor than I ever did about being Champion. And this way,”

Hop grabbed her hand and gave it a meaningful squeeze. 

“I don’t have to fight you for it.”

Dolly smiled and pulled him against her more tightly. 

“You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you say that,” Dolly said. “I wish I had better words to express how proud I am of you, and how excited I am that you’re finding where you fit.”

He squeezed her against him, sighing into her hair.

“As much as I’d like to stay here forever,” Dolly said into Hop’s shirt. “It’s probably been more than one minute.”

“Oh fine.” 

Hop released Dolly from his hug and they both finally stood. Dolly gazed up at him and at the mark on his neck that was already beginning to bruise.

“You know I think I learned quite a bit about you today,” she said, running her fingers over the spot under his jaw. “Bit sensitive here, hmm? Made you a little noisier than I expected.”

Hop’s race reddened as he tried to grumble out a retort. They brushed down their clothes, fixed up their hair, and tried to look as inconspicuous as possible as they made their way down the hotel hallway. As they stepped into the lift, Hop grimaced.

“Geez, Dolls, you bruise so easily… those marks are… kinda obvious.”

“Yeah, yours are too,” Dolly said. She heaved out a laugh as she peered at her reflection in the mirrored walls of the lift, then shrugged. “Whatever, we can just say we had a fist fight.”

“Yeah, that’s believable,” Hop said, rolling his eyes. 

“What, you think you’d win?” Dolly scoffed. “If we had to fight, you’d definitely lose. All this traveling has got me ripped.”

She lifted her arm and tried to flex.

“Uh huh,” Hop snorted. “Lucky for you toothpick arms are just my type.”

“Excuse me! Look at these rippling biceps!” Dolly scoffed, trying to flex harder. “I could have probably taken Eternatus down with just these muscles.”

“Ah yes, very impressive,” he agreed, squeezing her arm. 

Hop’s hand trailed down to her waist. He slowly pushed her into the corner of the lift and set his hands on the railing on either side of her.

“H-hey, none of that,” Dolly stuttered, tripping until she was flush against the corner of the lift. “Can’t be looking like a Tomato berry right in front of my mum.”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” he growled, leaning in again. “You’ve found a sensitive spot on me, and I want to find one on you.”

She smacked him off of her just as the lift door opened and Hop chuckled as she led him by the hand to the hotel plaza. Their mums, Sonia, Leon, and Jackson were waiting in the sunshine, and turned as they approached.

“You’re finally back, we found the notepad. Turns out it was in my bag the whole time,” Sonia said. “What took you two so long?”

Dolly’s eyes widened, and she smirked at Hop. This was the perfect opportunity for _him_ to be embarrassed after that stupid stunt he pulled upstairs. Dolly crossed her arms over her chest.

“Yeah, Hop, why did it take so long?” she asked. 

See him get out of this one. That’ll show _him_ to tease her like that again. Hop looked to the people milling about the plaza, to his mum, to her mum, then to Dolly as he shrugged. 

“Dolls can’t resist me and really wanted to snog.”

Dolly’s jaw dropped as her mum chuckled beside them. 

“What!? That’s-that’s because you-!” she stuttered. Dolly groaned and slapped her forehead. “You literally have no shame, do you.”

“Why would I be ashamed?” Hop grinned as he shrugged again and flung an arm around her shoulders. 

Her mum laughed and shook her head. 

“Not that I want to know the details, but it certainly is lovely seeing you two finally together after all these years,” she smiled. “I had a feeling this would happen after you said you were setting off with your best mate to travel half of Galar.”

“Yeah, as much as I want to hear about it, I really don’t want to hear about it,” Jackson gagged. “I think I’m gonna hurl.”

Dolly pushed at Jackson with her free hand. 

“Well now that I know way more about my little brother’s pastimes than I wish I did, let’s go eat,” Leon laughed, rubbing at his face. 

They made their way to the restaurant where the group ate, chatted, joked, and enthused about the Champion match that was fast approaching. Dolly had a hard time eating anything, with her nerves electrified the way they were. Every time she and Leon made eye contact, it was like a bolt of lightning struck her skin. It was almost time. Everything she had been waiting for, everything she had been fighting for, was soon coming to a culmination. 

They made their way to the Wyndon Stadium as crowds of people waved and cheered. Much to Dolly’s chagrin, Hop gave her a very public kiss in the middle of the plaza, as he was apparently not dismayed by all the crowds and cameras like she was. Dolly laughed when Leon leaned in for a kiss from Hop too, only to be slapped away by his grumbling brother. Leon said he just wanted a forehead kiss for good luck. 

Leon and Dolly dropped everyone off at the doors, and Dolly nudged Hop when she noticed Sonia discreetly squeeze Leon’s hand. Dolly and Leon waved goodbye, signed a few autographs, and made their way to the lift.

“I had a feeling it would come to this,” Leon said, looking ahead as the lift rose.

Dolly turned her head. Although she was accustomed to her pseudo-older brother who couldn’t chew with his mouth closed, it was certainly the Champion of Galar that stood before her this time. The air of authority was laced around him, and his power was palpable as the lift rose higher.

“There was something in your eyes, that day,” Leon continued. “When I brought you your Scorbunny. It was like I could see that fire deep within you. I had a feeling you were destined for greatness. And now,”

He turned to her, flashing that megawatt grin she had seen a thousand times now. It was odd, seeing it in person like this, when it seemed only yesterday that she was watching it from her couch in Postwick.

“And now I finally get to battle against that greatness,” Leon nodded. “Finally get to battle against you, and finally see what Challenger Dolly is made of.”

“I don’t know if I know everything I’m made of, Leon, even after all of this,” Dolly said. Then, she grinned. “But what I do know is that Galar will soon have a new Champion.”

“We’ll see about that,” he said with a laugh.

Leon ruffled her hair, dropped her off in the Challenger locker room, and immediately Dolly tossed out her Poké Balls. 

She breathed in, gazing at each Pokémon before her. Her Cinderace, Mudsdale, Bellossom, Corviknight, Weavile, and Haxorus were all standing there, grinning and gazing at their beloved Trainer. Dolly stood tall and squared her shoulders. An air of determination laced through her voice as she spoke.

“We’re almost there,” she said, clenching her fists. “Thank you, all of you, truly. I couldn’t have done any of this without all of you, nor would I have wanted to. We’ll beat Leon, together, and break this Curse. We’ll do exactly the thing that we set out to do, so long ago.”

“Dolly,” Jackson said, taking a step forward. “We’re all here because of you, and we are choosing every moment to stay with you. We will stay and will fight alongside you without hesitation, and we will follow you until the end.”

“I adore you, senorita. We all do,” Rosa said, twirling her skirt. “I have achieved my dream of dancing as a Bellossom because of you. And not only that, because of watching you, because of your encouragement, I believe that I could have been any Pokémon in the world - even a Vileplume - and still believed I was worthy of love.”

“Woulda still been meandering around Route 3, looking for something to do, something to fight for, if it weren’t for you comin’ along,” Hudson said, nodding his head slowly. “Your courage and passion made me want to be passionate about something too.”

“And I’d be wistfully searching the skies for a Trainer like you,” Theodore added with a soft smile. “You’ve taught me how to care for my friends, gently, and now I know even an old bloke like me can still learn new tricks.”

Ophelia nodded in agreement. 

“And I’m the same, Dolly. I’m confident to be myself - I don’t need to be anyone or prove anything to anyone,” Ophelia said. “You’ve shown me that it’s okay to be myself.”

They all looked to Rouge.

“What? Quit staring at me,” Rouge grumbled. “What’s with you, making everyone here so snivelly and sappy? Makes me wanna gag.”

Rosa shot her a glare. 

“Oh, that is not what you were saying about our Dolly only yesterday? Tell her what you told me, tell her or I will spray you with acid.”

Rouge’s eyes widened as they flicked between Rosa and Dolly. She heaved out a sigh. 

“F-fine. I was just sayin’ how you’re courageous and strong… and how I love fighting with you and this rubbish team.”

Dolly laughed and pat her Weavile on the head.

“I’ll stay with you until the very end,” Jackson said finally. “Partners, remember?”

He smiled and softly bumped her cheek with his paw. Dolly let out a shaky laugh and nodded.

“Partners,” she said, softly bumping his cheek in return.

A League staff member poked her head into the locker room.

“Challenger Dolly? They’re ready for you.”

Dolly nodded, gave each of her Pokémon a hug, then turned. As she gazed at the Gym Challenge insignia above the archway, she thought of everything she had been through, everything she had lost. Every sleepless night, every painful morning, all of the blood, all of the sweat, and all of the tears: It was all for this. 

Then, that familiar fire blazed in her skin. As Dolly stepped forward through the hallway and onto the Champion pitch, she knew in her bones, knew in her skin, that this is what she was made for.

Defeat the Champion. Break the Curse.

The match was sold out, the stadium and plaza were full, every screen in Galar was tuned in, and the crowd was wild. Everyone knew what she had done, what she had been through, and as she stood across from Leon, they all agreed, they all cheered, they all chanted, that she was the Shield of Galar. It was like the world existed only within Wyndon Stadium, and each and every soul on the planet was watching. The greatest Champion and the greatest Challenger stood across from each other as the crowd roared with all its might. After a tilt of the head from each, Leon turned to his side of the pitch, and Dolly turned to hers.

Dolly watched her shoes as she took each step. Step. Step. Step. Her mind flashed back to her very first time in the Wild Area. She remembered watching her shoes as she finally began to run, when she first started to move, when she first felt the mediocrity dripping off of her like sludge. Then, she looked up as she walked to her side of the pitch. Every time she walked this walk, she felt the same. From Milo to Raihan, from the semifinals until now. She felt the same step of fierce determination, of unwavering confidence in her abilities and in her Pokémon. Every step she took was another engraving of truth into her bones that this is what she was meant to do. It solidified itself into the ground with each step, as if the rubber of her Challenger’s shoes pushed it further into reality as they pushed into the turf.

As Dolly turned to face the crowd, turned to face Leon, turned to face her future, she couldn’t help but grin. This is what she was meant to do. 

And there was no way she could lose.

That all-familiar fire roared to life as she threw out her first Poké Ball. She knew his idiosyncrasies. She knew he would hurl his cape off in just the fashion he did. She knew he would throw out Aegislash first. She knew it like she knew the feeling pumping in her veins. 

So, first was Hudson. First was her Mudsdale, her steadfast and loyal partner, her slow and steady friend. His iron defense protected her in every aspect - her body, her mind, and her spirit. Aegislash glinted in the sun as it cut at Hudson with a Sacred Sword, with a Flash Cannon, then defended with a King’s Shield. Just as its steel glinted with each attack, it glinted as Hudson lunged forth in his own time. His iron defense rose with each attack, just as it always had. He had always protected her, ever since the beginning. He guided her gently, humbly, and in a steadfast manner through the routes of Galar. He was just as steadfast in this battle, as his great muscles flexed when he attacked Aegislash again and again. His stoic and steady power was soon overwhelming the other Pokémon, as his Earthquake tore into the ground of the pitch, as his Superpower dented the steel of his opponent. 

The ground rumbled as Hudson galloped forth, landing blow after blow. His power swelled in Dolly’s own muscles as the earth quaked beneath her feet. It was as if they were connected: they had both been bored, meandering, looking for something to fight for, and here they were, fulfilled at having finally found it. Rocks and rubble flung around them, and with a powerful hit, the Aegislash was dented, scuffed, and lodged into the earth after a final Earthquake.

Perhaps, Dolly thought, if it hadn’t been Hudson, it would have been Mateo. Although the Aegislash nimbly changed forms, her Riolu, perhaps Lucario, would have predicted it. He would have read it in the air, read it in the auras of his opponent, read it in the eyes of Champion Leon. He would have skidded across the turf, quick and calculated, and he would have focused all of his power into one spot. He would have run, dodged, and his incredible speed would have kicked the dust up around them. The glint of the Aegislash’s steel would have been dull in comparison to the bursts of energy that Mateo brought forth. His strikes would be true, perhaps even playful, as he battled with the Aegislash. His raw authenticity would have blazed forth, just as it did with every word he spoke. His wisdom and wit and care would have come to life in this battle, just as it had every moment they spent together. He would have lodged the Aegislash into the ground, just as Hudson did, then he would have turned back to Dolly with a sweet smile.

Dolly caught Leon’s eye from across the pitch as he returned his fainted Pokémon to its Poké Ball. His hair breezed in the wind, just as hers did, and if Dolly was correct in her calculations, up next would be Haxorus.

It was two Haxorus that formed craters in the earth as they appeared on the pitch. Dolly had already weighed the risk versus the reward of Dragon against Dragon, but Ophelia’s strength was true, and her attacks and defenses were sharp. 

The two Haxorus danced around each other, dangerously, beautiful, as their Outrages and Dragon Dances burst into the air. Ophelia burned forth in her well-planned attacks, her strategized power, her gentility and elegance turned into strategic confidence. Ophelia was her quiet companion - the gentle word and soft song of their team. She was her empathetic encouragement, her restorative resolution, the counselor and the friend of the little flowers and the fellow Pokémon in their team. It was as if the flames of her Dragon Breath were tinged with a gentle birdsong, as if each blow were executed with all the care in the world. She was elegant and beautiful, dodging and hitting the Haxorus right in the heart.

The ground continued to shake as the two Dragon Pokémon pounded against the earth. Glimmering reds and blues laced in the air and glinted in the light of the sun. The Haxorus struck Ophelia, and Ophelia struck back. The very air around them began to shake as the meteorites from her Draco Meteor hurtled into the arena.

But perhaps if it wasn’t Ophelia, it may have been Fay. Her Noibat, perhaps her Noivern, could have flapped about, quickly and calmly, just as Ophelia did. Perhaps she would have vibrated the stones on the ground as her Boomburst reverberated throughout the pitch. Perhaps the Haxorus would have been blasted into the wall by the power of the explosive sound. Perhaps by then Dolly would have known Fay’s capacity, known her idiosyncrasies, just as she did Ophelia’s, or just as she knew Leon’s when he threw out Inteleon next.

This Pokémon was no longer the little Sobble who slipped on his own tears into the pond. The second she hurled out Rosa’s Poké Ball, the crowd went wild at sight of their favorite Bellossom. 

She danced and teased as she dodged each of the Inteleon’s attacks and swayed about the pitch just like she dreamed she would. She danced with power, grace, and charm around the Inteleon, casting flower petals laced with thorns. She blazed with confidence, with power, with passion, just as she had the second Dolly met her in the Wild Area. Rosa was her fervent support, her dreamy and starry-eyed romantic, who would speak with honesty and authenticity whenever she desired. She held no fear, no hesitation, as she spoke or as she battled against this Inteleon. 

Petals and leaves were whirling around the arena like a tornado of color, and the pink smoke glittered as Rosa leaped through it. Just as she gave that Dusknoir a roundhouse kick to the face when they first met, she did the same with Inteleon, and her blazing passion saved Dolly once again. She turned to the crowd and blew a kiss as they cheered for the beautiful and powerful force before them.

If it wasn’t Rosa, then it could have been Sap. Her Vikavolt would have flown high into the air, buzzing about, flying and falling, weaving about to a tune that she wrote herself. The rain would have speckled as the thunder started to rumble. She would have shot forth bolts of lightning, roars of thunder, to correspond to the notes in her song. She would have buzzed a beat in the air for her Pokémon team to dance to. Her gentle and understanding nature would have shown through as she toppled Dolly over as she tried to clamber into her lap. She would have never used her words, but would have still been understanding and forceful, and would have pushed her friends and her Trainer towards the greatness she knew existed within them.

Next was Dragapult, and next was Rouge. Her Weavile snickered and waited. She waited, and waited, and waited, and waited a second longer for the Dragapult to come an inch too close. Then, she slid under its knees, under its legs, to attack from behind. She called forth a blustering snowstorm to whirl around them, and she called icicles and shards from the air to nimbly take down her opponent. She was Dolly’s cold-hearted companion, with the secretly soft side. Although she tried to defend herself with rolling eyes and scoffs, her care was apparent whenever she reached out to protect and nourish Dolly in the times she needed most. Her icicle fur was always warmed by the blush that spread across her face when her teammates called her out for it - because they knew that she had one of the most loving and caring hearts of all. In this battle she was clever, she was quick, and as soon as the Dragapult fell, she shrugged and picked at her teeth as if it were nothing.

Had it not been Rouge, it would have been Pip, her fun-loving and tricky Solosis. She would have known an array of attacks by then, and she would have blasted her Psychic prowess at the Dragapult, launching it back into the wall. She would have had a grin etched on her face. Her obtrusive assurance would have built up those around her - her confidence in the ability within herself and within her friends would have lifted Dolly up even then.

Or perhaps it could have been Posey. Although she had an array of evolutions to choose from, something within Dolly knew she would have been a Sylveon. She would have glimmered and glistened in the light, just like her big eyes did when they first met. She would have been brave and courageous in this fight, and she would have overcome her fears with a smile on her face. She would have encouraged Dolly, and Dolly would have encouraged her, as the light glistened around the arena from her powerful Fairy-type attacks. She would have battled with power and light, just like the dawn when it would rise.

Then, Leon hurled out Mr. Rime, and Theodore replaced Rouge on the pitch. He was their wise old soul, always willing to share his knowledge and wisdom, even if they didn’t want to listen. He was their noble knight, their trusted ally. Even through his stern words, his warm heart cared for Dolly like a father, yet another guide and humble support. Theodore blasted gale after howling gale, struck with a glinting Steel Wing again and again. Theodore’s knowledge and wisdom were just as powerful as he flew high into the sky, then cut downwards with another Steel attack.

Perhaps if it wasn’t Theodore, it could have been Lacey. She was so close to evolving into a Dubwool, and by now, she would have held her own with the newfound power of evolution. She was sweet and supportive, innocent and kind, and showed Dolly gentility and softness from the very beginning. She would have been straightforward, charging forward and straight into the Mr. Rime.

With another Steel Wing attack, Mr. Rime fell. Dolly held her breath as Leon hurled out his last Pokémon. Charizard appeared before them, roared to the sky, and the crowd cheered for the icon of the Galar region. 

And finally, Jackson.

Dolly had no type advantages against Leon’s Charizard, but there was no other Pokémon she wanted standing beside her than her first. Her steadfast partner, her loyal friend. The one who had saved her life when he reminded her she was worthy of love so long ago. The friend who called her family, the friend who swore to stay by her side and battle with her forever. She couldn’t help but smile as the tears rolled down her cheeks as Jackson flawlessly executed her commands as if they shared the same thoughts, the same feelings, the same blood.

Flames burst from beneath Jackson’s feet as he ran forward, as he attacked, as he dodged, just as they did when he battled on that makeshift pitch in Postwick as a Scorbunny, so, so long ago. 

The tears were streaming down Dolly’s face as she ordered her Cinderace forth in one breath. Her heart longed for her old friend, her old friends, and for the friends she had now. The tears were coursing from her eyes and onto the pitch, landing on the turf as each tear carried the weight of the world. She gripped the charms lying on her collarbone as she called another attack on Charizard. Each charm was warm, tear-stained, and yet it was like each had its own heartbeat, as if each was beating in tandem with Dolly’s.

Or perhaps, throughout any of Leon’s Pokémon, she could have sent out Faline. She could have sent out her Deerling, her first friend, her first Pokémon to ignite that fire within her bones. Her first friend to show her love and friendship, her first Pokémon to enthuse about her goodness and encourage her to chase her dreams. Her petals would have been pink, just as pink as the Pecha berries they would pick together behind her old home. They would have shared a body, shared a soul, as they defended and attacked together in one breath.

Jackson bolted across the pitch, under the wings of Charizard, and attacked from behind. The memories of each and every one of Dolly’s Pokémon cheered her on, she could feel it just as she could feel the intensity of the power blazing within her Cinderace as he landed another hit on Charizard. They wove together, apart, as the two Fire-type Pokémon called forth blazes of heat. The temperature in the stadium was rising, and the scorch marks burned the earth, shot through the great screens that followed each Pokémon’s movements, and blazed against the steel beams that held the stadium together. The stadium itself was groaning as Cinderace and Charizard melted the siding and the walls encompassing the pitch.

As Jackson stormed forward in a wall of blazing heat, Charizard blasted his own breath of fire into the air. 

Jackson landed another hit.

Even though her Cinderace stood before him, Charizard breathed a beacon of flames into the sky, as if to signal to the world what was soon to come.

Smoke trailed from his mouth, from his nose, and with a roar, Charizard fell to the pitch.

The dust settled, and the entire stadium was silent. 

A pin could drop, and the sound would echo through the quiet. Hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people watched with bated breath. From the stands, from their televisions, from their phones, perhaps even from around the world, they all waited, watched, to see if this truly was about to be history in the making.

Charizard struggled to stand, then hit the ground again.

The stadium erupted into cheers as Dolly watched brilliant light return Charizard to his Poké Ball. The sound was deafening as it coursed through the arena in waves. 

“ _SHE’S DONE IT!_ ” the announcer boomed over the roaring of the crowd. Dolly could barely make out his voice through the decibel of every voice in the stadium. “ _CHALLENGER DOLLY HAS JUST MADE HISTORY AND HAS BEAT THE UNBEATABLE CHAMPION LEON!_ ”

Dolly stood, sweat dripping and chest heaving, as her eyes widened. Canons exploded into the air and it was as if the entire world shook from the noise of Wyndon Stadium.

Posey.

Fay. 

Lacey.

Mateo.

Sap.

Pip.

Ophelia.

Rouge.

Theodore.

Rosa.

Hudson.

Jackson.

And Faline.

It was as if every team member, past and present, stood beside her as the crowd erupted by screaming her name.

“ _WITHOUT LOSING A SINGLE POKÉMON, WE HAVE JUST SEEN HISTORY IN THE MAKING!_ ”

Dolly’s entire body started to shake as she stood there, a smile slowly inching onto her face. She couldn’t control it, couldn’t hide it, as she jumped into the air. Jackson’s head whipped back to her, frozen on the spot, jaw hanging open. He sprinted to her, catapulting himself into a hug. She laughed and hugged her Cinderace as the crowd roared around them.

Defeat the Champion.

She did it.

Dolly looked at Leon from across the pitch. Through all of the confetti fluttering, his shoulders trembled. The tears were falling from his eyes just as quickly as hers as they stared at one another across the field. The tears and confetti were falling like rain as the sound of Wyndon stadium shook the earth. And yet, through all the noise, through the sound of every voice in the world, Dolly heard with crystal clear precision the whisper on Leon’s lips.

_“Thank you.”_

Dolly nodded, Leon gripped the bill of his hat, and threw it into the air. The golden edging of his hat glinted in the sun as it fell to the ground, and Leon turned to face the crowd. It was then that Dolly realized she had never before seen the crown of his head.

“My time as Champion is over,” Leon called to the crowd. “But what a champion time it’s been!”

He turned toward Dolly, a huge grin spreading over his face as well. They ran to each other in the center of the pitch, Dolly flung her arms around him, and Leon laughed as he ruffled her hair.

“Thank you Dolly, for the greatest battle I’ve ever had. You destroyed my team. You knocked out every single one of them, and I didn’t get a single one of yours,” Leon said. “If I’ve been undefeated for so long, and you managed to blow past me like that, the people of Galar have another undefeated Champion on their hands.”

He stepped back from her, a quiet determination blazing in his eyes.

“Congratulations, Dolly,” he said. “You’ve beat even the unbeatable Champion - making you the new Champion of the region!”

He threw his arms up during his explanation, and the crowd roared again. Confetti fluttered around the stadium. 

“You’ve become a first-rate Trainer, alright. I offer you my heartfelt congratulations.”

Dolly couldn’t contain her smile as it spread across her face. She watched herself turn around on the massive screens in the stadium (at least the ones that their Pokémon didn’t destroy), and she faced every bit of the crowd. She offered a humble wave.

“And now that you’ve grown so strong, perhaps it’s time I start looking ahead myself,” Leon said. “Your determination, your courage, your stubbornness, even; it’s inspired me to look for something new to fight for. To find something new that fuels that passion blazing in me that I’ve seen in you so many times. It’s magnetic, pervasive, and it makes me want to find a new passion one day, too.”

Leon set his hand on her shoulder and gave it an encouraging squeeze. 

“And you, Dolly, what you ought to do now is believe in yourself and your partner Pokémon and keep on blasting ahead in order to create that bright future we all hope to see!”

Leon stood beside her as they faced the crowd together.

“People of Galar, here you have it! A new legend is born right before your eyes…”

Leon held her hand in his and raised them to the sky as the crowd roared.

“Champion Dolly!”


	33. Greatness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Roster: Jackson (Cinderace), Hudson (Mudsdale), Rosa (Bellossom), Theodore (Corviknight), Rouge (Weavile), Ophelia (Haxorus)

**Chapter 33 - Greatness**

It had been a whirlwind of a week. Dolly figured that once she beat Leon and became the new Champion, things would finally start to settle down after a day or two. She thought she could sign a few autographs, take a couple pictures, then head back to Postwick and the Slumbering Weald. She still needed to get to Zamazenta - she was only one step away from breaking the Curse, but her Champion orientation was keeping her from doing much else besides meetings, eating, sleeping, and more meetings. She was grateful to have Leon with her for the support and explanations of everything it meant to be Champion, and she never realized how much was really weighing on him. He even seemed to be walking lighter, though perhaps that was just because he didn’t have a two-ton cape clung over his shoulders. Dolly had tried it on, nearly crumpled under the weight, and gave a vehement ‘no’ when the tailors asked if she wanted it as part of her uniform. That was only part of her responsibilities and decisions, though, and now with Rose gone, there was even more to be done. Dolly and Leon got a break before the next part of her orientation, and they were preparing to head back to Postwick for a few days. Dolly slumped into the armchair in Leon’s hotel room, heaved out a sigh, and Leon chuckled from beside her as he packed up his things.

“You’re so much better suited for all of this than I am, Leon,” she sighed as she flopped her arms out on the armrests. “I barely know how to talk to my friends and family, let alone journalists and camera people.”

She also didn’t know there were so many ways to pose or smile. How was she supposed to smile in a way that was ‘intimidating, yet inviting?’ She wasn’t sure she would ever get used to seeing her face plastered over every inch of Wyndon, either. Leon laughed again and ruffled her hair as he walked by. 

“You’ll get the hang of it soon, Champion Dolly. I’ve had years of practice. Either way, you don’t need to be how I was as Champion, just be yourself.”

“Easy for you to say,” Dolly grumbled. “You’re charming and extroverted and know how to talk to a crowd. I’m awkward and… awkward.”

“You’re not-” Leon started. He stuck out his lip, calculated a few seconds, then nodded. “Yeah you are. But don’t worry, it’s endearing.”

She laughed and shoved his arm as he walked by.

Leon finally finished packing up, then they hailed a cab for Motostoke. She and Leon had to fill out some paperwork, then they would take the train to Wedgehurst from there. Dolly rested her head on her arms as she gazed out the window as the cab passed over half of Galar. She smiled as she picked out familiar spots she had traversed over throughout her Gym Challenge. That was where she met Rouge, and that was where she met Pip. That was where Hop gave her the charms for her necklace. That was where that curry exploded all over Rosa and Mateo, and that was where Jackson got lodged into the manhole cover when he tried to see what was under it. There was the Wild Area hostel, and that was where she sneezed so hard her glasses flung off her face and almost took Sap’s eye out. Dolly whispered a silent thank you to each and every one of the places that held memories. 

They finally landed down in Motostoke, completed their errands, then took the train out to Wedgehurst. When the train arrived, the plaza was filled with spectators and villagers, which wasn’t too challenging, to be honest, as their little villages weren’t exactly a thriving metropolis.

Leon addressed the people seamlessly, and helped Dolly address the people almost as seamlessly. Even as she spoke to them, her eyes flitted about the crowd, waiting for a flash of purple hair and golden eyes to appear. 

The second she finished speaking, Hop pushed his way to the front and lunged at the both of them. He curled them both into a huge hug, and they both laughed at the enthusiasm that nearly toppled them both over.

“Number one fan, here to greet you,” Hop grinned. He, again, gave Dolly a very public kiss despite her grumbling. He then gave her another one when the crowd gave a collective ‘aww.’

They chatted as they walked through Route 1, and Hop had already intertwined his fingers into hers. The three of them walked and talked, and Hop asked a thousand questions about Dolly, and Dolly asked a thousand questions about Hop.

“Hey Dolly,” Leon said, interrupting their babbling. “Would you mind going on ahead? I’ve got to talk with Hop about something.”

Dolly nodded, gave Hop’s hand a squeeze, and headed down Route 1. As she trotted off, her curiosity got the best of her. Although she knew she probably shouldn’t be listening, she couldn’t help but smile as Leon apologized to Hop. He promised to be a better older brother who was there for Hop much more often than he ever had been. He wanted to be accessible to his favorite person - his little brother. Hop said Leon was the best brother in the world, she heard him sniffle, and whatever he said next was muffled.

Then Leon said something about how Hop and her were getting into a serious relationship and it was prime time for ‘the talk,’ and suddenly Dolly started walking away much faster.

As Dolly finally made it to the front porch of her old home, her mum was already waiting for her, and engulfed her in a hug as soon as she walked in the door.

“There’s my little Pecha berry,” she smiled, stepping back. “Big and important as Galar’s Champion, huh?”

“Hi mum,” Dolly smiled.

“Come in, set your stuff down, I’ve already made lunch,” her mum said. “I hope there’s enough for everyone! I know how much some of your Pokémon can eat, my goodness.”

Dolly giggled at the thought of her massive Pokémon sitting around their tiny kitchen table. They instead ate outside on their patio while enjoying the warm, sunny weather. Jackson had insisted he sit beside her mum, and then insisted Dolly sit on his other side. Her team was, again, quickly enthralled by her mum’s doting, their smiles shone, and their laughter rang throughout Postwick.

After catching up with her mum for a while, her mum waved her off to the lab to see Hop, saying ‘that poor boy is much too blue without you around.’ Dolly chuckled when all of her Pokémon wanted to stay with her mum, and her mum insisted that Dolly ‘always got time to spoil her darling Pokémon, and now it was her turn.’ She couldn’t be too long, though - they still needed to see Zamazenta. 

Dolly mulled over persuasion tactics to use on Sonia, trying to figure out the best way to get Sonia to let Hop out of work early. That thought left as quickly as it came, unfortunately, because when Sonia met her on the road to Professor Magnolia’s house, she shrugged and said, ‘You’ve waited this long, what’s a few more hours?’ Dolly pouted in response, Sonia shrugged again, and waved goodbye as she went to visit her gran. She was just as strict as Hop said.

So instead, Dolly somberly pushed into the Pokémon Research Lab, Hop nearly tackled her to the ground, and suddenly she was feeling much better. They talked, Hop showed her some of his research, Hop wanted a hug, they talked about Dolly’s Champion orientation, Hop wanted a longer hug, Hop showed her some pictures from his field study, Dolly wanted a kiss, she explained the different aspects of her new Champion uniform she was wearing, Hop said he wanted to feel the fabric, he did, then suddenly Dolly wanted a longer kiss, Hop was happy to oblige, it was getting a little challenging to continue their conversation, some papers were strewn off a desk, Hop discovered a sensitive spot on Dolly, Dolly discovered Hop was quite noisy even when he wasn’t talking, they nearly fell off the desk, they did fall off the desk, Hop stumbled into an office chair, they discovered they could easily fit on it if Dolly straddled his lap, neither of them heard the door open, Sonia walked around the corner at an unfortunate time, they all froze, and Sonia suddenly had enough ammunition to tease them both until the end of time.

Dolly waved a flustered goodbye and booked it out the door. It didn’t even close before she heard Sonia’s voice.

“You know I don’t pay you to snog with the sexy new Champion, right?”

“We weren’t - we weren’t snogging, w-we were just-” she heard Hop splutter.

“Just _what?!_ Playing checkers and drinking tea? Talking about politics and the weather?”

“N-no, we-”

“Or was it about your new topic of study on ‘How to Get Hickeys’? You’re studying _Pokémon_ under _my_ watch, remember? Not whatever else you’re learning when you’re under your girlfriend!”

“ _Sonia_.”

“You thought you were being subtle?” she laughed. “I could hear you moaning like a Miltank from my gran’s house! We all know you’ve been in love with her since the day you met her, but that doesn’t mean you can pounce on her like a Purrugly in heat every time she comes home!”

Hop groaned again.

“Alright, get out of here. Not like you’re going to get any work done when she’s in town anyway.”

The door to the lab burst open and Hop rushed out. It didn’t take long for him to catch up to Dolly and weave his fingers around hers. 

“Purrugly in heat, huh?” Dolly grinned.

Hop kissed her cheek, then shrugged as they made their way back to Postwick.

Dolly laughed when she saw her Pokémon team trotting between her house and Hop’s with party supplies, as they were all wearing homemade ‘Champion Pokémon’ sashes her mum must have made. She collected her team, tucked their Poké Balls into her bag, and she and Hop made their way to the fence beside her home.

The pair stood, hand in hand, gazing into the dark mist of the Slumbering Weald. There were no more hurdles. She had overcome them all, and all that was left was the dirt path between the fence and the shrine in the center. Hop squeezed her hand. 

“You ready?”

“I’ve been ready for this day my entire life.”

The familiar mist pooled around them as they stepped into the Slumbering Weald.

They traversed through the forest, following along the lush path and side stepping around the Sqwovets that bumbled around their feet. The mist swirled about them, and Dolly could feel each and every particle as it lay over her skin, over the forest, like a blanket. They weaved and turned, and slowly made their way through the dark green grass and purple trees until they reached the small stone bridge.

Dolly took in a breath, and her heart started to beat harder. They followed the river north until they finally reached the shrine, and the air around it glittered as the sun shone between the leaves on the trees. The same stone grave sat at the end of the path, sitting humbly, yet speaking volumes to everything Dolly had experienced. She and Hop finally placed down the rusted sword and shield, took a step back, and waited in the beam of sunlight.

“Shield of Galar, you have returned.”

A beam of light erupted before them, and Hop and Dolly both stumbled back. Before them stood Zamazenta and Zacian, gazing down at them with their fierce yellow eyes. Dolly nodded her head, released Hop’s hand, and took a step toward Zamazenta.

“I’ve beaten the Champion,” she said. Her voice quivered, but her posture was strong. “And I’ve come to ask you to break the Nuzlocke Curse.”

Zamazenta’s great head lowered. 

“Very well. Best me in battle, then I shall grant you one wish.”

Dolly nodded and swallowed hard. Hop and Zacian had stepped back and sat on the sidelines of what was now their arena. The sunlight glistened over the shrine of the Slumbering Weald, and the small specks flashed in the rays of light. Dolly took Jackson’s Poké Ball from her bag, and stepped forward again.

For her. For her Pokémon. To best the beast, to break the Curse, and forever kindle the fire that blazed in her skin. It was as if the entire forest could feel the passion and power erupting from the Trainer, Cinderace, and Zamazenta as they dueled within the light of the sun. The Slumbering Weald pulsed as the mist danced about their feet, as it swirled in the air and cast an ethereal glow over their arena. It was as if the stones of the shrine sang like the Rookidees in the trees, calling out an operatic, an idyllic melody, as Zamazenta grew weaker at every one of Jackson’s attacks.

It was as if Dolly was born exactly for this moment. The passion exploded in her body, just as it did on the Champion pitch, just as it did in every battle, just as it did when she first battled with Faline so long ago. Zamazenta hit the ground, Dolly threw the Poké Ball, it rolled three times, and clicked.

Dolly hadn’t noticed the tears streaming down her face until she bent down to pick up the Poké Ball. She wiped them away with her palm as Zacian and Hop cheered from the sidelines. Jackson rushed up to her, flashed a grin, and set his hands on his hips.

“That was kind of easy,” he said with a decisive nod.

Dolly rolled her eyes and tossed the Poké Ball, and Zamazenta appeared before them again. Zamazenta bowed his head, and his voice rumbled through the air. It was as if it were encapsulated in every particle of mist that swirled about them.

“You have trusted in yourself,” Zamazenta said. “You have trusted in your Pokémon, you have saved the region, and you have bested me. Shield of Galar, I will grant you one wish.”

Dolly swallowed hard as her hands began to tremble.

“Please,” she whispered. “I want to break the Nuzlocke Curse.”

Zamazenta nodded, then lifted his head. His yellow eyes pierced into hers as his voice rumbled again.

“Very well. Close your eyes. Hold out your hands.”

Dolly did so. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her palms up to Zamazenta. He set his paws into her hands.

The mist surrounded her again and the dew immediately dampened her clothes. Her Champion’s shirt clung to her body as the mist slithered around the silky fabric. She waited, and she could feel Jackson back away. Then, she could feel the familiar prickle. It seeped into her skin, starting on the surface, then slowly melding deeper and deeper into her body. She grunted as the tingling grew stronger.

It started in her fingers. They grew numb, just as her wrists grew numb, then her forearms, then her chest. Then, the numbness started to tingle, it started to buzz, then it started to stab. It reached her veins. Dolly was sweating now and heaving in breaths of air. It was as if those particles of mist ingrained themselves into every blood cell that pumped through her body. She couldn’t control herself as she started to shake, and started to tremble.

The stabbing was growing stronger, shooting into her heart. She grunted and fell forward, and Zamazenta helped her stand. She clung to his fur as she panted as every fiber of her body quaked. Her temperature was rising, the sweat starting to pool, and her eyebrows pulled together as the moisture seeped over every inch of her skin.

She couldn’t control her breathing as she gripped Zamazenta’s fur. Her body was quaking as she let out a grunt when heaving in another breath. She could barely open her eyes, but through her eyelashes she saw Zacian blocking both Hop and Jackson from rushing to her. She opened her mouth to ask Zamazenta to stop, as the pain was making her vision blurry. She could only clench her teeth together as she endured.

Then, she felt something break. It was as if every blood cell popped open, releasing the Curse from her blood. She let out another cry, gripped onto Zamazenta, and held her breath.

And finally, it stopped.

Dolly heaved out a breath and fell, as her overwhelmed body was weak and unable to stand. Through the dark mist that was slowly fading, as her vision started to tunnel, she heard the words she had been waiting her entire life to hear. She heard the rumble of Zamazenta’s voice from beneath her as he helped her stand.

“It is broken, Shield of Galar. Dolly, you are freed from the Nuzlocke Curse.”

She smiled as the tears came pouring forth. She wasn’t sure if she was laughing or sobbing as she fell again into Zamazenta, and he slowly guided her to the ground. She clung to his fur as the shaking in her body slowly subsided there on the ground of the Slumbering Weald shrine.

“It’s gone,” Dolly wept. “It’s finally gone.”

Zacian had stepped aside, and Jackson and Hop both immediately ran to her and knelt beside her on the ground. Dolly could barely lift her arms as she held each of them against her. They rested against Zamazenta on the ground, Zacian laid beside them, and all of them were enveloped in the rays of sunlight beaming in through the tops of the trees.

“Thank you, Zamazenta,” Hop said, tucking a hair behind Dolly’s ear as the tears flowed from both their eyes.

After a while, the tears finally ebbed. Dolly smiled as she wiped a few from her cheek, and then from her shirt that was drenched from the sweat and tears. She stroked a hand through Zamazenta’s fur.

“Thank you,” she breathed.

He only nodded, smiling softly at the Trainer before him.

“Can you still talk to Pokémon?” Hop asked as Dolly leaned against him.

Dolly’s heart stopped. If the Curse is what led her to talk to Pokémon, and it was broken, then that meant…

Jackson moved, knelt in front of her, and set his paws on her knees.

“Jackson…?”

Jackson smiled gently. His eyes started to glisten over as he softly shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak, and Dolly was unable to understand the soft words that escaped his lips.

Dolly’s heart dropped as she sat there, trying to listen, trying to hear, trying to understand what it was that was coming from her partner’s mouth. All of this time, she had expected to break the Curse, expected to forever kindle the fire in her veins, and expected to battle beside Jackson forever. 

She never expected this.

All of their jokes, all their conversations, all of his encouragement and challenging words... They would have to be stored in her memories. She would never again hear him ask a question, tell a joke, or tell her that she was worthy of love.

Dolly tried to smile too as her eyebrows pulled together. She tried, and tried again, and failed as the tears tumbled. Dolly reached out for her friend, for her first ever partner, whom she could no longer speak to, but always, always, always try to understand.

“Sucker!” Jackson laughed, launching himself into a hug. “You can still speak Pokémon!”

Dolly’s jaw dropped, and her arms were frozen in the air. 

“Sorry I couldn’t help myself,” Jackson snickered. “That was literally the most golden opportunity.”

After a moment she shook her head and smacked his arm. 

“You are the _worst!”_ she laughed, then squeezed him as tightly as she could. “I just nearly had a heart attack, you idiot!”

She heard a rumble of a laugh from beneath her.

Zamazenta and Zacian started to stand and Hop and Jackson both pulled Dolly up onto her feet.

“You are quite a trickster, young Cinderace,” Zamazenta chuckled. “I can see why your Riolu friend had so much fun with you.”

Jackson breathed out a laugh and bashfully scratched behind his head.

“You ought to go find him and tell him the good news,” Zamazenta said.

Jackson’s brow pulled together as he glanced back up to Zamazenta. 

“Oh, he…” Jackson started. “He passed away a while ago.”

“Oh, no,” Zamazenta said. “He is merely sleeping, waiting for his Trainer to return.”

Dolly’s heart dropped just as Jackson’s jaw did.

“...What?”

Zamazenta looked between the dumbfounded faces before him. 

“It is true. The Pokémon victims of the Nuzlocke Curse are but sleeping, sleeping until the day their Trainer breaks the Curse. If their Trainer doesn’t break the Curse, they peacefully pass on the day their Trainer does. But you have no worries for that now, do you?”

Dolly’s eyes widened. 

“Does…” Dolly whispered. “Does that mean…?”

Zamazenta nodded and smiled. 

“It is a common misconception, unfortunately,” he said. “Although it may seem twisted, did that risk of death not spur you to a greater love and care for your Pokémon? You are not as reckless or as mindless as you may have been otherwise, are you? You see your Pokémon not as tools to sacrifice, but as friends to love and care for.”

Dolly had no time to mull it over as suddenly Jackson was pulling on her arm.

“Dolly we have to go! We have to find Mateo! And Posey and Sap and all the others!”

Dolly stared back at Zamazenta, who only nodded slowly and smiled again. 

“Go, Shield of Galar. Your friends are awaiting your return.”

This guy didn’t have to tell her twice. She grabbed Hop and Jackson in each hand and sprinted out of the Slumbering Weald. She bolted past her mum in her front yard.

“Where do you think you’re going, Miss Dolores?” she called.

“I’m going through half of Galar, I’ll be back before dark!”

And Dolly ran. She ran and she ran and she ran and she ran. The mediocrity was dissipated, long gone, just as the stains were. It had disappeared, evaporated, no longer staining or clinging to her skin. She was like a bullet - fast and powerful and sure of her target. She had bested the Champion, bested the beast, and broken the Nuzlocke Curse. There was nothing left that she couldn’t do as she sprinted as fast as she could with her friends beside her. She was strong, she was brave, and she was no longer a monster who could talk to Pokémon. She was no longer a freak with the Nuzlocke Curse. She had finally become only a girl who loved others, a girl who loved herself, and a girl who would always try to help those around her know that they too were worthy of love.

They made it to the Wild Area first, and Jackson tugged her along to where Lacey must have been. Her mind flashed to how he had taken the Poké Ball from her hands the night she could only curl up and cry on the base of the steps to Motostoke City. He pulled her along, neither of them ever breaking their smile, as they saw Lacey standing among the grass and beaming at them.

“Lacey!” Dolly cried, falling to the ground and wrapping her arms around her Wooloo.

“Miss Dolly, you’re back!” Lacey bleated, bouncing up and down. “I’ve been so excited to see you again!”

Dolly held Lacey’s soft wool against her, apologized for everything, and they started off again. She stumbled in her steps as she tried to keep a hand on her Wooloo, but Jackson pulled her along just the same.

Next was Route 4.

Dolly sprinted through Galar Mine No. 1, through the wheat, through that mud puddle she tripped in that was somehow still there, and made it to beneath the tree by the river. 

Posey and Fay were waiting, both of their smiles blooming as their Trainer approached them.

They leapt into her arms as the tears continued to fall, both of them mumbling out kind words and apologies and forgiveness as they choked through the tears. Dolly finally set them both down, and Posey gazed up at her Trainer.

“Dolly?” Posey asked quietly.

“Yes, Posey?” Dolly smiled, wiping her nose with her sleeve.

“I’ve been thinking about what I want to be when I grow up and…”

Posey kicked at the ground bashfully, then gazed up at Dolly with big brown eyes.

“I think I want to be an Eevee for just a bit longer. You love yourself for who you are, and I want to be just like you.”

Dolly burst out sobbing again as she clung to her Eevee. Jackson had to pull her back up to get them to continue on. 

The next closest spot was Route 9, where Dolly couldn’t help but laugh as she watched Pip breakdancing around in some grass.

“Oh wassup homegirl!” the Solosis called. 

Dolly grinned, offered an apology, then Pip waved her off.

“Pfft you’re fine! That Piers bloke with the sick ass hair knows how to friggin’ _shred._ I got to listen to some sick tunes for like, ever!” she said. Then, she looked at Hop. “Oh shit, this your boyfriend? He’s friggin’ hot, wassup honey?”

Dolly didn’t even need to translate, as apparently Solosis could communicate telepathically. Great.

Next was Circhester, where Sap nearly tackled her into the ground as they approached. She tackled into Jackson too, who hugged her just as hard. 

“Welcome back, Dolly.”

Dolly froze.

“...Sap?”

Sap buzzed again. Although Dolly had never heard that voice before, it was as familiar as the Vikavolt that buzzed her wings in front of her then. Dolly opened her mouth, only to let out a grunt as Jackson tugged on her arm.

“Come on Dolly, we need to hurry, we need to get to the Glimwood Tangle!” he begged, pulling her along. They hailed a cab and it took off, the fierce wings of the Corviknight pumping powerfully through the air. 

It took them a while to weave through the branches and bushes, as Dolly could only rely on her bleak memory to get them to their destination. Her heart was beating harder as she saw the trees around them start to reflect a bright neon glow. As the glowing grew stronger, Jackson took off, ignoring the branches and leaves whipping at his face.

“Mateo!” Jackson called, tripping into the clearing. His head whipped around, eyes frantically scanning every inch of the circular clearing. He hesitantly stepped over the small glittering mushrooms and small white flowers that were speckled about the grass. 

“Mateo...?” he called again as Dolly and Hop followed up behind him.

The little Pokémon that darted around the clearing had finally stopped. Dolly’s heart did, too, as when they first visited this sacred site, she didn’t think they knew they were there. It was as if the entire forest was holding its breath, watching, waiting, the dark trees framing the graves that laid before them.

Jackson stepped up to the grave that bore Mateo’s name. It looked just as it did the last time they left it, with the small white flowers still blooming. He looked around. No movement. His shoulders slumped as he untied Mateo’s bandana from around his arm.

As he motioned to place the bandana on the tombstone, a Lucario peeked around the massive mushroom.

“Jackson?”

The leaves didn’t rustle, the Pokémon didn’t move, not a single being in the clearing breathed as Jackson lifted his head to the sound of the familiar voice. 

Then, the tears burst, flooded down each face, as the two ran and tackled each other to the ground. Dolly didn’t need Mateo to identify the aura in the clearing, as she could feel the blazing yellow as she watched the two friends embrace each other. The small Pokémon around them cheered, clapped, danced, as the Cinderace and Lucario were finally reunited.

They were talking a mile a minute, both practically vibrating with excitement. Jackson held out the bandana that he had been holding onto ever since Hammerlocke.

“Here, you can have this back now, I guess,” Jackson grinned.

“Thanks for keeping it safe for me,” Mateo nodded. Then, he ripped it in half, and handed half to Jackson. They tied it around the other’s wrist, both beaming.

Mateo finally approached her as well, and Dolly offered an apology, a hug, and Mateo waved her off just as Pip had.

“It’s thanks to you that I’ve finally evolved into a Lucario,” Mateo smiled. “I finally felt enough love and encouragement from you all that I could finally evolve.”

Dolly beamed and pulled her Lucario into a hug. 

“I’ve missed you so much, Mateo,” she whispered.

When Mateo stepped back, he glanced between her and Hop.

“Hey, and Hop’s here!” Mateo beamed. “Has he asked you to marry him yet? I feel like I’ve only ever seen his aura as pink when he’s around you, and that night we were all in the Glimwood Tangle yours turned pink too.”

The heat rose to Dolly’s cheeks as she sputtered out a response.

“Ah, and now it’s pink again,” Mateo hummed. “Real deep pink, too, wow.”

Great.

They started their way out of the Glimwood Tangle, and she overheard Mateo whisper to Jackson.

“I’ve never seen such a deep pink. They must be really in love,”

“ _Oh_ yeah,” Jackson whispered back. “They kiss each other like, all the time.”

Dolly shot a glare at them both, and they grinned cheekily. After weaving through the trees of the Glimwood Tangle, they hailed another cab, and it didn’t take long before they landed in Postwick again. It didn’t take long before Dolly’s eyes hurt from crying so much, either.

Her and Hop’s mums were bustling around in Hop’s yard as they finished their celebration preparations that night. Fairy lights hung from the trees, windows, and the torches that were set up around the yard, and music drifted through the air. Dolly flopped into the grass with a contented sigh, and Hop laid beside her with a smile. The succulent scent of the grill wafted around them, and Dolly sat up again. Hop sat behind her, pulled her against him, and she leaned against his chest as he curled his arms around her waist. All of their Pokémon were bounding around the yard, talking and playing and reuniting with one another. She hadn’t realized many of them would have never met each other, and Dolly watched with a satisfied smile as they all interacted together. 

She was correct in thinking that Mateo and Rouge would take to each other well, since both of them had a sharp wit and keen eye. Dolly grinned as she watched Rouge lean towards the Lucario, enthralled in whatever it was he was talking about. Dolly giggled when Mateo paused in his story, and casually Rouge if she knew anything about auras. She shook her head, asked him to tell her all about it, and he started describing the different colors. She asked what aura she had, he said pink, then she froze, grumbled something, and stormed off.

Theodore was just as enthralled with Posey and Fay, and he and Ophelia sat with them and regaled stories of their adventures, and then a bit of a history lesson mixed in as well. Her heart swelled to see the stars in their eyes when Ophelia described everything she knew about Noivern, and then Theodore described everything he knew about every Eevee evolution, and then some. Even though she herself grew tired of listening to him, the Eevee and Noibat nodded and stared, wide-eyed, at all the knowledge pouring forth from the Corviknight.

Hudson and Rosa were sitting with Sap and Lacey, where Dolly assumed Hudson and Sap were chatting about something while Rosa doted on Lacey while braiding the locks of hair on her head. They had to shoo away Jackson and Pip, who were flinging around during their breakdance competition.

After their delicious grilled dinner, they all sat around the campfire and Jackson filled everyone in on every bit of adventure they had been through. He started from the _very_ beginning, when Dolly first met her ‘adorable, powerful, and super ace Scorbunny,’ to the part where ‘Dolly and her handsome, hilarious, and strikingly fit Cinderace’ beat up Eternatus with their bare fists, to how he practically beat Charizard with one paw behind his back. Charizard disagreed, and Jackson stumbled out a ‘W-well, _basically_ one paw…’ Charizard raised an eyebrow, and Jackson concluded that he did, in fact, use both of his paws. 

They all talked and laughed and sang together well into the night, and the campfire blazed as Dolly and her friends enjoyed one another’s company. She leaned against Hop with a satisfied hum, and he smiled and kissed her temple. Her eyes fluttered closed, only to shoot open again when she watched Sonia cautiously look around. She frantically nudged Hop and pointed slyly to Sonia and Leon tiptoeing behind the tree in the yard, they watched Sonia and Leon glance at one another, then Leon hid their faces behind his hat.

“I knew it,” Hop grinned against her ear.

“I sure hope you two are only kissing foreheads!” Dolly called.

Leon and Sonia whipped around, then bolted away from each other as Sonia twirled her hair and Leon tripped into the pond.

It didn’t take long before the stars were twinkling overhead, and Hop was combing his fingers through her hair as Dolly was peacefully snoozing against his chest. Many of her Pokémon had come to lay with them, too, so she was trying to hold onto a Wooloo, an Eevee, a Noibat, a Cinderace, a Lucario, a Vikavolt, and a Bellossom. She managed with relative success, though Hop had to lay against her Corviknight when he couldn’t hold up all of their combined weight by himself.

As the night wound down, her mum persuaded most of her Pokémon back into their Poké Balls, though some of the smaller ones and Jackson stayed out. Hop carried Dolly back to her house as she curled her arms around Posey and Fay, and her mum carried Jackson to their house as a line of drool trailed down her back.

Dolly was grateful for those few days off, as she certainly needed a break from her Champion’s orientation, and also a break from the entire Gym Challenge and fighting Eternatus and beating the Champion and fighting Zamazenta and breaking the Curse and finding all her Pokémon and trying to fit them all in her house.

It was her last day home for a while, and Dolly sighed as she gazed out her window, watching the trees of the Slumbering Weald swaying back and forth. Jackson lay curled around her head, sleeping soundly after he and Mateo rushed back and forth so much earlier that day. It took eons to get the stench out after he and Mateo joined Jeremey the Sqwovet in a dung war, much to her disapproval and everyone else’s disgust. Jackson finally won against Mateo in something, and Dolly couldn’t really say she was surprised it was via dung war. She was so proud.

She glanced to the other end of her couch, where Hop was sitting with her legs slung on his lap. He leafed through a book, a small smile ghosting over his face as he mindlessly drew circles on her ankles. Her eyes shot back out the window as a Greedent bumbled across a branch, and another fat one behind it cracked the branch, and tumbled into the shrubbery below. Dolly rolled her eyes and chuckled.

As the light breeze hit her face, she couldn’t help but think back to so long ago when she was sitting in this exact spot, attempting with every fiber of her being to quell the desire that burned within her. She hummed out a sigh, pat Jackson on the head, and reached her hand out for Hop to hold.

Greatness can come in many forms, can’t it? It could come standing before a mighty and devastating monster, defeating it through sheer force of will. It could come in a blaze of glory, standing in front of thousands of people - millions, even - beating the unbeatable. It could come by breaking the unbreakable as beams of light glowed in her blood. It could come from those things, and it could come from many others. It could come from wiping the tears of her partner on the ledge of a building in Hammerlocke. It could come from vowing to be a better friend. It could come from the courage that came with working through heartbreak. It could come from laying flowers down at the graves of dear friends. It could come from the countless tears she shed out of fear, out of despair, and out of joy. It could come from overcoming the limits she set for herself. It could come from being comfortable in her own skin, and it could come from finally looking in the mirror and learning to love the girl she saw - bruises, cuts, scars, and all.

What was disguised as mediocrity was often her truest potential for growth, she just had to have the courage to get up and find it. With the help of great friends, great family, she had to will herself to get up and chase it. Because of that mediocrity, because of her sheer will to overcome it, there was something she found and something she would always continue to reach towards: greatness.

The End.


	34. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

A bell tingled as Dolly stepped into the room, and the floorboards creaked beneath her shoes as she glanced around. She supposed it hadn’t been too long since she was here last. The same antler-themed lanterns hung from the ceiling, the same hearth calmly flickered, the same couch slumped against the wall. Dolly could feel her posture suffer just by looking at it.

“I’ll be down in a moment!” a voice called from upstairs.

Footsteps plodded along above Dolly’s head, then down the wooden staircase.

“Well, if it isn’t Champion Dolly, all spiffy in her Champion get-up. Love the leggings and shorts look,” a woman laughed, slinging her tall graying ponytail behind her head. “What a pleasure to see you again.”

Dolly smiled, staring into the bright blue eyes of the hostel owner as she made her way downstairs.

“I can say the same to you, Champion Hilda.”

The woman froze on the last step, and her eyes grew wide as the corner of Dolly’s mouth twitched up. Then, the woman breathed out a laugh. 

“Well, I’ve been called a lot of things in my years here in Galar,” she said. “But that has never been one of them.”

Dolly reached into her pocket, then set a yellowed strip of paper into Hilda’s hand. She stared at the article Sonia had given her in the Hammerlocke Vault so long ago.

“I figured it out a while ago after my friend showed me this article,” Dolly explained. “It was the day after I met you, actually.”

Hilda looked up at Dolly, and an odd ferocity burned in her gaze. 

“What’d you bring this to me for? You want me to congratulate you on figuring me out? I haven’t been called that in a long time, and there’s a reason for it. There’s a reason I’m in the middle of nowhere in a country I wasn’t born in. I haven’t been back there in years, decades, nor do I plan to.”

“What if I told you your old Pokémon are still alive?” Dolly said, her blazing gaze matching Hilda’s.

After a moment, Hilda’s eyebrows furrowed. 

“I’d say that you’d better have a pretty good explanation for me to believe that.”

“How about I show you?” Dolly said. “You even told me back in my Gym Challenge, ‘When you break the Curse, you can teach others. Learn what you can, teach others what you know,’ and that’s what I’m doing. They’re alive, Champion Hilda. I’ve already got you a plane ticket. Mum’s waiting with a cab outside.”

Hilda’s eyes squinted, and half a breath escaped her lips. Dolly held out her hand. 

“Come on, let’s go back, just for a bit. I’ve got a feeling we’ve both got unfinished business.”

~~

The plane landed only moments ago, and Dolly tore through the town. She sprinted across the blacktop, pushed past the employees loading cargo onto the other planes on the drive, rushed past the fencing, and onto the main street. The town wasn’t huge, but it was large enough for a dozen houses to be dappled throughout it, separated just enough by shrubs, gardens, and trees.

Dolly reached the threshold of the forest and stopped. The breeze was cool, slight, not strong enough to sway her hair, not enough to ruffle her clothes, but just enough to rustle the sparse blades of grass around her shoes. The Pidoves were chirping to one another, wondering who this strange girl was - the girl that exuded power, but such timidity at the same time.

With a cautious breath, Dolly took a step.

And another step.

And another step.

Dolly walked through the forest, and every memory was engraved in her mind like it was only yesterday that she had lived through them. That was where she had tripped into the river. That was where she chucked a rock and it nailed a Palpitoad on the head. She smiled as she saw the Pecha berries in the bushes.

She made it to the clearing. And there, in the center, with the specks of light still fluttering around it, was the haphazard rock she placed there so many years ago.

Time didn’t exist, space didn’t exist, and Dolly wasn’t sure of anything except how her heart pounded in her ears.

She wasn’t sure what to expect. She wasn’t sure what would happen.

She heard the rustling of branches, the rustling of leaves.

A shadow emerged from behind the gravestone, and tears began to fall from Dolly’s eyes.

“Is that you, Dolly? My… you’ve grown. How long has it been?”

Dolly couldn’t hold back her sobs as they cracked in the air. 

“Eleven years.”

“My, well… I’ve missed you so much,” she said, delicately placing hoof after hoof as she stepped toward Dolly.

That familiar smile was so gentle on her face, as if not a single second had passed.

“I can’t believe it’s really you,” Dolly cried as she fell to her knees.

The small Pokémon curled herself into Dolly’s arms. She sounded the same. She looked the same. She felt the same.

“I always knew you would come back. I’ve loved you throughout everything Dolly, every single second.”

“I love you too…” Dolly whimpered.

Dolly’s voice cracked as she tried again and again to say the name that had been on her heart for years. After another sob, she finally managed it out.

“...Faline.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note  
> What a journey. Thank you all, dear readers, for accompanying me through Galar alongside Dolly and her Pokémon team. I can’t even express what it feels like to have finally clicked ‘submit’ on the final chapter of this story, but I would say the word is close to bittersweet. This is the longest thing I have ever written, and probably will be for a while. These characters all have such a special place in my heart, and just like Hop said in chapter 29, ‘the characters write themselves.’ I can’t believe this story has come to a close after so many months (almost a y e a r) of writing and rewriting and editing and revising… and you have all been here through it too. Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for joining me in this journey! I hope you laughed, I hope you cried, and I hope you may have taken away at least one little lesson. Take care of yourselves, my friends, you are all so, so worthy of love! - missusk


End file.
